THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 7, 1995 TAG: 9506070011
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: KEITH MONROE
LENGTH: Long : 110 lines
Bob Dole has gone Hollywood. He gave a speech there recently and cast himself as Savonarola. Seemingly for the first time in his 72 years, Dole has noticed that many of the products of the entertainment industry lack moral uplift.
Sincere or not in believing its products to be ``nightmares of depravity,'' he knows that saying so is good politics.
Politicians running for national office need air time, so Dole was careful to denounce movies and recordings but to say little about TV, the medium that pipes its sludge directly into the home. Yet sleazy talk shows, soft-porn soap operas, leering miniseries, violent movies of the week and raunchy rock videos are among parents' biggest worries.
There's no question much of American popular culture is lowest-common-denominator stuff, dead from the neck up. It slavers over sex and revels in cartoonish violence. Rap music and rancid movies are easy targets for preachers, politicians and professors, but there are two questions worth asking when a presidential aspirant gets in the act. First, does Dole know what he's talking about? Second, what's his solution?
Answering the first is easy. Dole wouldn't know rap music from a rhumba. Earlier, Dole singled out the film ``Priest'' for attack. But it's a serious, even somber study of men of the cloth agonized by their inability to live up to their vows. It's hardly a libidinous portrayal of naked clerics. Now Dole has denounced ``Natural Born Killers'' for mindless violence, but viewers recognized it as a brutal satire about American violence and the media's willingness to capitalize on it.
Dole admits he's never seen the films or listened to the music he's criticizing. That may also account for his nostalgia for Warner Brothers. He blasted Time-Warner for the ``marketing of evil.'' Unlike the present corporation, the old Warners made wholesome movies.
But that's poor history. Warner was famous as the grittiest of the majors with its stark portrayals of urban violence. In its heyday it was attacked for glamorizing crime and making heros of gangsters in movies like ``Scarface,'' ``Public Enemy'' and ``The Roaring '20s.''
Dole also said executives had ``sold their souls'' by making degrading movies and records. But then he said they aren't responding to the market since people really want family fare like ``The Lion King,'' and ``True Lies.''
This is wrong every which way. If the executives are making trash no one wants, they will soon be out of business and the problem will be solved. But the audience is not monolithic. There's an audience for ``The Lion King'' but also for violent and sexually explicit entertainment.
Unbeknownst to Dole, ``True Lies'' falls into that category. Its Republican star plays a Dad who kills for a living. Mom behaves like a prostitute and their daughter is a thief. Nice family values, senator.
But it's untrue to say that sex and violence in art are a mark of depravity per se. Neither life nor art is that simple. Here's a plot: A young man's father is poisoned by his uncle. The uncle inherits his brother's position and marries his widow. The young man's girl goes mad and commits suicide after he stabs her father to death, thinking it's his uncle. By the end, almost no one is left alive.
Disgusting, right? Worse that Lyle and Eric. Unfortunately for easy moralists, it's ``Hamlet'' - perhaps the greatest play in English. Greek tragedy is also filled with sex and violence, darkness and perversity. Generations have found the most enthralling character in Paradise Lost to be Satan.
Which brings us back to what should be done about entertainment that offends our sensibilities. Dole, like Clinton and Quayle before him, has called on entertainment executives to control themselves. But they probably won't as long as the audience wants what they're peddling.
As president, would Dole do something to force the entertainment industry to clean up its act? Is that a legitimate function of government? And even if it is, how do you legislate against ``Natural Born Killers'' or Phil Gramm's ``Beauty Queens'' while leaving ``Othello'' and the O.J. trial alone?
It may not be possible. When the Puritans tried to purify England, their first act was to close all the theaters - not just the one's offering sleaze. And that was just the beginning. To stop bear baiting, all the bears in London were killed. Dancing was banned. Adultery was made punishable by death, and swearing by stiff fines. Those with different views were discriminated against. Meat was not allowed on Wednesday, and police invaded homes to check. Drinking, card playing, cosmetics and merrymaking on Christmas were prohibited.
Not only was this bad for business, it was bad for morale. After less than 20 years, the English decided a moralizing state was worse than an immoral populace, reopened the theaters and restored the monarchy.
Of course, Dole doesn't really have a moral legislative agenda. He's got a personal political agenda. He doesn't want to pass laws; he wants to attract votes and is willing to pander to moralists to get them.
If Dole is sincere about improving public morality and taste, he could help the American audience to get its mind out of the gutter. Continued funding for one of the few channels that doesn't stoop to sleaze would be a start. Does Dole support public television? No. What's his plan for improving education, so the audience can tell the difference between ``Priest'' and pornography? And is he as concerned about violence on the street as about violence on the screen? His opposition to banning assault weapons makes one wonder.
Certainly, the picture of nihilistic inner-city life in rap music is disturbing. But is it a false picture? Persuading Time-Warner executives not to give recording contracts to rappers won't improve urban life, it will just keep suburban children of affluence from hearing about it. If art holds up a mirror to nature, breaking the mirror won't improve the nature of American life.
Besides, the public can put sleazy entertainment out of business all by itself - by refusing to buy tickets or by changing the channel. It needs help from its politicians to improve schools, fight crime, redeem cities. That's what Dole ought to be worried about. Not muzzling the messengers. MEMO: Mr. Monroe is an editorial writer.
by CNB