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Opinion
Wednesday, September 27, 2000
For comments, contact Ben Embry or Emily Hughey at 864-4924 or e-mail opinion@kansan.com
Editorial board: Government should refrain from censorship
Regulation not sound solution
W we don't need to be saved from Hollywood violence as much as Washington politics. The debate about Hollywood violence is cliché politics, typified by the infamous cry of "won't somebody please think of the children?" We don't need goverment regulations to fix this problem.
A recent Federal Trade Commission
Illustration by Wes Benson
report alleges that the entertainment industry "routinely targets children under 17 in their marketing of products their own ratings systems deem inappropriate or warrant parental caution due to violent content." Whenever children are involved, you can expect condemnation from strange political bedfellows, such as Lynn Cheney, the wife of Republican vice-presidential candidate Dick Cheney, and Democratic vicepresidential candidate Joe Lieberman.
Even Al Gore, whose political career has been financed by the movie industry, jumped on the bandwagon, claiming that he would impose punitive legislation against the entertainment industry if it did not clean up its act within six months.
However, there are superior solutions to government intervention.
The movie industry goes where the money is, and children are a large group of movie consumers. But children aren't like other consumers. They don't work hard for the cash to go to the movies. They are dependent on their parents for movie money.
Politicians can placate parents with the dangers of violent movies. They also can make parents feel powerless against a huge industry, but the truth is parents are more empowered against Hollywood than they think.
If half the parents who send their kids to violent movies said 'no' one summer, and drove down the profit margins, the movie industry would think twice before investing in those kinds of pictures. They certainly wouldn't market their product to consumers whose parents won't give them any spending money.
There are different responsibilities for government and individuals. If we rely on federal regulation every time a threat to children crops up, we will secede more parental authority to the government. We will we be inundated with cries of "save the children" every election year. And politicians will shave off more and more of our rights for their own careers.
In the long run, it is better for us to take the responsibility of regulating the movies. We can choose what we send our children to see.
Brett Watson for the editorial board
Brownback: Music, video games should entertain without selling violence to children
Violent media need some form of self-regulation
Last year, I introduced legislation authorizing a Federal Trade Commission study on whether the entertainment industry markets violence to children. The study, released Sept. 11, confirms what many of us have long suspected: That the marketing of violent, adult-rated entertainment to kids is, in the words of FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky, "pervasive and aggressive." It shows that Hollywood is making a killing off of marketing violence to kids.
The problem is not limited to one industry but can be found in virtually every form of entertainment: movies, music and video games. In studying popular music, the FTC report found that every album with a parental advisor sticker they surveyed had been target-marketed to kids. Hyper-violent, misogynistic and racist lyrics are marketed to our children, whose character, attitudes, and values are still being formed. But this comes as no surprise. There are few fans of such music older than 20.
Movies are equally blatant in their efforts to market violence to children. Indeed, the report notes that some moviemakers used kids as young as 10 in focus groups for R-rated movies. Movie makers claim that parents bear total responsibility, while deliberately making it harder for them to make decisions. Of course parents are responsible for policing what their children watch — but the entertainment companies should not make it difficult for them to do so.
The video-game industry also is a major culprit. When kids play violent video games, they do not merely witness slaughter; they engage in virtual murder. Indeed, the point of so-called "first-person shooter" games (virtually all M-rated) is to kill as many characters as possible. The higher the body count, the higher your score.
Common sense should tell us that positively reinforcing sadistic behavior cannot be good for our children. We cannot expect that hours spent in school will mold and instruct a child's mind, while hours spent immersed in violent entertainment will not. We cannot hope that children who are entertained by violence will love peace.
In fact, it is a medical consensus. At a summit I played host in late July, the major public health organizations released a joint statement concluding: "Well over 1000 studies point overwhelming to a causal connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in some children." There is no longer a question as to whether exposing children to violent entertainment is a public health risk. It is. The question is: What are we going to do about it?
As a strong supporter of the First Amendment, I am opposed to censorship, but I believe the industry should enter into a voluntary code of conduct that defines for consumers and parents how high they aim and how low they will go.
We do need to take steps to encourage greater self-regulation and self-restraint on the part of the entertainment industry. But we need to change minds even more than laws. I call on the entertainment industry to use their power and influence to edify, rather than degrade. They can entertain in ways that do not glamorize slaughter or debase women. They can make money by producing top-quality films that appeal to the better angels of our nature, rather than racing to the bottom. And for the sake of our children, they should.
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.
Interdependence of ads, news part of the game
The Kansan news staff loves maintaining a friendly rivalry with the advertising staff especially when it comes to softball. However, the news and advertising staff are separate for a reason. How much could you trust a newspaper where food critics sold ads to local restaurants and political reporters designed print ads for city commission candidates?
Yet we couldn't do much of anything without each other.
Take the news out of the Kansan and you'd have the Hawk Sheet minus that fun yellow color. Without ads, we'd have to print the Kansan on the back of paper from the computer center's recycle box and stick them on the windshields of students' cars.
As much as society collectively complains about advertising, it does allow us to maintain a free press. Imagine how different newspapers and magazines would be if they were subsidized by the government. If they weren't subsidized at all, the
Erin R. Barcomb
readers'
representative
readerrep@kansan.com
subscriptions would unbelievably expensive. Relying on businesses for support has its drawbacks as well. Certain stories present conflicts of interest, both real and perceived. One reader commented that Monday's story about the Athletics Department's problem with the name of the bookstore's Web site didn't address the fact that kansan.com houses the bookstore's site, jayhawks.com.
The reader thought we couldn't fairly report on a story involving the bookstore site because
of our online and print advertising partnership.
However, we didn't hesitate to take on the controversial dress code at Jack Flanigans, even though the owner was dropping off advertising information when he came to talk to us about the story. And look at the story we did on Jefferson Commons' residents who felt they were getting cheated out of their deposits. The apartment complex has been a regular advertiser in the Kansan, but we took a critical look at their policies because students were affected, and that's who we write for, not our advertisers.
Unfortunately, it's not that way at all publications. In an article by Russ Baker in The Columbia Journalism Review, magazines have felt the crunch of big advertisers, such as Chrysler, which are "demanding summaries of upcoming articles while implicitly asking editors to think twice about running 'sexual, political, social issues.'"
Under these circumstances, imagine how hard it would be for a magazine to run a story about safety standards on Chrysler cars that could save drivers' lives.
Common sense would have us catering to those paying our bills, the businesses that advertise with us. But I think newspapers are a different kind of business. Most of our customers pick up a free copy of the paper on their way to class. As far as I'm concerned, in this business, delivering news important to students is our bottom line.
newspaper take a look at it on the cover.
Sure, it takes some of the romance out of it, but without a well-run business and a means of production and distribution, we can't reach our audience — the students — who are the reason we're in the business in the first place.
As journalists, sometimes we forget that newspapers are a business with a bottom lift.
Barcomb is a Wichita senior in journalism.
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. The Kansan reserves the right to edit submissions, and not all of them will be published. Standerous statements will not be printed. To read more, go to www.kansan.com.
Now, what if John McCool had said in his column that minorities or women simply won't tolerate any person or group who believes that they are inferior? Grow up, McCool, and figure out what diversity means. Homophobia is as morally abhorrent as racism or sexism.
I think it is real obvious that the reporters at the Kansan aren't doing their job when you run a full-page ad advertising your Free for All line.
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I've made some really in-depth comments the last three or four weeks, but you guys always pick some of the most ignorant, random comments to put in your paper. It's absolutely ridiculous. It's the last
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time I will ever read it.
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Everyone keeps talking about the sexual assault case by the two football players like they're sure it actually happened. Let's not forget that there isn't any evidence, and the police haven't filed any charges. The fact that these two men have been labeled guilty from the outset and must prove themselves innocent is the real injustice here.
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The fact that every day last week the cover story of the Kansan was about some radical fringe groups' protests proves that this paper has a liberal agenda and wants to forcefeed it to KU students. How about some real news instead of this left-wing nonsense all the time?
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I can't believe all this propoganda about the football game. Just because they won one game, they get this whole entire page. Why can't they say anything about Maurice Green? He won a gold medal. At least they could give him credit in the paper. He deserves it.
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I wish people in the Wescoe Terrace cafeteria would be a little more polite and not shove everyone around.
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The people who stabbed Paul Pierce, that was wrong.
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If someone calls the Free for All like 20 times, don't you think he should get in the paper?
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Listening to KLZR makes me want to rupture my ear drums with a sharpened pencil.
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Did you ever wonder if your life was like The Truman Show?
I didn't pay thousands of dollars to take a cold shower at Corbin. I hope it gets fixed soon.
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Give Terry Allen a rest. He's a good coach and a good man.
If bikers want more respect, they should use signals.That goes for drivers too.
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Free for All should be for insults,
because if it's a compliment, you
should say it to the person's face,
unlike insults.
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Enough about the Kansas jokes. Why don't you just leave and let us tend to our cattle?
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