To the Editor:
I am writing in response to the Tim Young editorial, "You Can't Blame The Weatherman" [Jan 11]. The juvenile ramblings, mostly about Senator Dole's film preferences, tell me the writer needs some serious time on the analysis couch, right next to Oliver Stone.
Bob Dole and Bill Bennett are trying to make a very basic point which is that motion pictures and other mass media are powerful influences on the public, particularly children, and that the managements of the large entertainment companies -- Time Warner, Disney and others -- have an obligation which goes beyond the very important one of earning top dollar for their shareholders.
In spite of being bombarded by reporters' questions about which films or performers they favor and which they do not, Dole and Bennett have no desire to micro manage particular companies or an industry. A tangible result of such efforts is the sale by Time Warner last September of its gangsta rap holdings, a 50 percent stake in the Interscope label. Bennett and others had criticized Time Warner specifically for its promotion of gangsta rap, and the company apparently saw the error of its ways.
Moreover, the weatherman analogy is a bad one. Weathermen are objective, whereas those delivering their art forms via mass media frequently are not. Gangsta rap for example, often makes a paradigm of those who would maim, rape and kill. While it is difficult to measure in a meaningful way how this influences behavior, it undoubtedly glorifies a questionable values system to the children who listen to it. Although the underlying problems are very real and must be addressed, it is not too much to ask that the entertainment industry do a little soul searching and try to do a better job of discharging the responsibility which comes with its very considerable influence.
