Quit blaming the TV, would you please?

I was watching The Daily Show last night (there was no CSI on) and they were doing a story about the recent hearings held in the Senate about the Family Values, or lack thereof, of cable TV. It made me wonder, what exactly is the meaning of "family values." I suppose it depends on which view you take of it. From my point of view, family values are exactly that. They are the values a family holds. From the media's (read: Government's) point of view, family values seem to be equated with those values held by the Church. This, I think, is just another example of the Govt. ignoring that old 'separation of church and state' thing that is supposed to be one of the basic components of our system of government. Don't get me wrong, this is certainly not the only basic component being ignored by the feds, just the one that's got my attention today.
Say I have a family and my family believes in things like smoking, drinking, saying naughty words, and having pre-marital sex. Well, then these are the "values" of my family, correct? Doesn't that make them family values? Yes, I think it does. And there are thousands upon thousands of families in this country who do exactly those things with impunity. So how can our government then generalize the term family values to stand for things like abstinence, clean living, attending church, etc., etc., when there are thousands of families who's values have nothing to do with those things? Not to mention if you were to get the full official version of family values I bet it wouldn't include things like taking bribes, taking away peoples social security and medical care, or taking funding away from the education system. If they really want to support the families of the nation, wouldn't things like tax breaks and low cost medical care for low-income families be a bit more useful than trying to shove out-dated, unwanted dogma down their throats?
Ok, I'm done now.