> Any station can air some movie at 4pm featuring the good cops shooting the bad guys.

Here in the UK there are actually quite good limits on that. I'm not sure you would, say, ever see Starsky and Hutch (the film) on at 4pm.

> Or, for instance, it is easy to be watching some news report at dinner and being exposed to something beating the horror or gore movies by points.

Honestly; I'd say that could be beneficial more than damaging. I wouldn't, obviously, recommend showing it to kids. But if they end up watching something bad at least it's real and real people have probably died. Surely that sends the right message ("hurting people is bad")