Carefully, however, the ''CBS Reports'' makes its point: A matriarchal society in urban America does not work. The absence of two parents encourages rootlessness. The question of white middle-class values is irrelevant; the climate of poverty, dependency and despair that the rootlessness breeds is not.

Even more carefully, meanwhile, the ''CBS Reports'' makes a secondary point: the social structure erected by the state can be counterproductive. Even the Moynihan Report skipped over this, although in recent years it has been discussed by some black academics. When does welfare assistance hinder rather than help? When does it destroy personal responsibility?

Mr. Moyers approaches this almost obliquely. He speaks to an unmarried 23-year-old woman who is the mother of two children and is expecting a third.

''I don't think I would have had the second two children,'' she says, ''if I didn't think welfare was there. I don't like welfare because it makes me lazy.'' ''It does?'' Mr. Moyers says. ''Yeah, it makes you lazy just to sit around and wait for a monthly check to come in,'' the young mother replies. ''You know, I just like to work. I like money coming in every week or every two weeks.''

Then Mr. Moyers talks to the father of her children. He is 26, and has fathered six children by four women. He has supported none of them. ''Well, the majority of the mothers are welfare,'' he says briskly. ''And welfare gives them the stipend for the month. So what I'm not doing, the Government does.''