It's Everyone's Fault Except Mine

I'm a producer in a radio station, and at my job, I get a lot of complaint calls. The ones that I'll never understand are from the people who think I can do something about what they're hearing. I can see these people now: "This guy on the radio offends me! If I call the radio station, maybe they'll immediately take him off the air." They make the assumption that without them, my station is nothing, and so if they complain and complain, change will be made. Not that they would ever consider actually changing the station; in this staring match between station and listener, they believe that the station will flinch first, and they won't change the station because they never have before, therefore it's up to the station to change.

I'm going to introduce these people to a concept they may have never heard of, as John Popper of Blues Traveler once said, "a very sound and user-friendly idea that may finally bring that pesky mountain to Mohammed." It's called "if you don't like it, there are two knobs on your radio; one turns it off, and the other changes the station." If more people actually did that, if they actually decided to exercise some control over what they or their children listened to or watched rather than try to deny the material for its intended audience, then maybe we wouldn't have this battle between the government and Hollywood right now.

For those of you who don't know, Vice-President Gore went after Hollywood this week, accusing them of trying to promote R-rated movies to underage audiences. Now if that isn't the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Like the promotional people at the studios get together and say amongst themselves, "Hmmm, we've got a movie full of graphic violence, nudity, steamy sexual situations and lots of profanity. How can we get kids to sneak in and see it?" Does that not sound absolutely ridiculous? For one thing, finding ways to get kids to sneak in and see your movie is by definition trying to get people to do something illegal, which is more than illegal, it's just plain immoral. For another thing, if they're trying to get the kids to make their parents take them to these films, that may as well be on the same level. What's more, if the parents actually go along with it, especially without checking out what's in the film, then they're not doing their jobs as parents.

This happens every few years, not coincidentally every time there's a presidential election. In 1992, George Bush (President Bush, I mean, not Junior) went after Ice-T's song "Cop Killer". In 1996, Bob Dole demanded that Hollywood cleaned its act up. Now, it's Gore's turn. I would consider this pretty ironic, seeing as how less than a month ago, his party was throwing its big to-do in LA and there were Hollywood types running around all over the place. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you, but I digress.

Another reason this whole debate is laughable is that people are trying to link violent content in movies and on TV to crime at a time when crime rates are dropping, and they're trying to link erotic images and content to teen sex at a time when teen pregnancy rates are dropping. Kinda like trying to justify that something costs too much when it's 50% off. Not that crime and teenage pregnancy are things to just pooh-pooh away and even when those rates are down, a rate of zero is what we would ultimately like to see. However, at a time when it would seem that by the numbers, our society is cleaning up its act, people are out there looking for more people to blame and not hailing whatever forces have led to the decline in those numbers.

The reason why the heat is being turned up in my opinion is that while the violent crime rates are dropping, there is more media coverage of the crimes that do happen. If crime gets an increased amount of air time, then there is the appearance that there is more crime. Therefore, people are looking for answers as to why this stuff is happening, and the unfortunate thing is they never look at themselves. When young people are committing crimes, bringing weapons to school and doing God knows what else, their parents don't look at themselves and wonder if they're doing something wrong or worse yet, not doing anything at all. Instead, they assume it must be what the kids are watching or the music they are listening to. Parents have the power to affect those aspects of their kids lives. Now, I don't know the reasons why they don't exercise those powers. They may feel like their parents were too hard on them, and so they want to be "friends" with their kids. There are some cases where the parents aren't around to watch their kids, and I totally understand that, they need to make the money necessary to raise their kids. I had that a lot, too, when I was a kid, my mom was at work or schlepping my sister around to dance lessons. However, my mom had the foresight to always make sure I had a babysitter. I would highly recommend doing just that, better to have SOMEBODY watching the kids when you're not there than nobody at all, and it shouldn't cost that much to hire someone.

Therefore, memo to Gore and all of the others who believe that society's ills are the fault of Hollywood, the recording industry, all of us in radio, etc: Maybe it's time you all looked at yourself and how you raise your children. It doesn't take very long, and we're all better for it. Gore raised two daughters who are involved and active in many things, including their dad's campaign. I won't be voting for him in November, but he still is an example of a good parent. Maybe then he should be teaching you all to be better parents rather than covering for the bad ones by blaming anyone other than them.

And to all of you who are calling in to complain about whatever you just heard on the station I work for, may I sum up my response in the immortal words of Syracuse University chancellor Kenneth Shaw:

"GET A LIFE!!!"