OPINION
Cartoons are a reflection, not a cause, of violence
Martin Fishkr
"There is nothing good or bad.
but thinking makes it so
— Hamlet
ight fight fight, fight fight
fight. It's the Itchy and
J. Scratchy Show." Mart mu)
I.isa Simpson's favorite cat-and
mouse cartoon within a cartoon
may very well bo the most vio
lent show on television. And if
Attorney General Janet Reno has
her way. the FBI will have Kmsty
the Klown in cuffs for potting
such violence on the tube.
The entertainment industry is
coming under increasing pres
sure to reduce the amount of vio
lence on television and the
movies, and two recent events
have added fuel to the censorship
fire.
A couple weeks ago. a 5-year
old Ohio boy set fin? to his house,
killing his little sister, after
allegedly watching MTV's
dynamic duo, Beavis and
Butthead. demonstrate the joys
of arson. "Uh huh. uh huh. Fire's
cool."
More recently, a couple of
young men have been killed after
mimicking a stunt in Disney's
movie. The Program, in which
football players prove their man
hood by lying on the center
divider of a highway while traf
fic roars past on either side. "Uh
huh. uh (splat!)"
In typical knee-jerk fashion,
critics and legislators are clam
oring for the entertainment indus
try to accept the blame for these
tragedies or face the wrath of
Reno (herself responsible for one
of tf*»s year's more violent tele
vision moments), or the Congress
(which ought to be subjei t to one
of this year's more violent tele
vision moments).
The problem is neither with
Beavis and Bullhead nor Disnev
— it's with these kids and their
[jerents In the Ohio in< ident. one
can onlv wonder why the 1hi\ s
mother kept matches in a pla< e
lie could get to them Rnjiorts sug
gested the mother had caught the
boy placing with fin1 previously,
and thus knew of his pyrote< h
nic proclivities
Obviously, whatever she did
to discourage him. if anything,
failed quite miserably and ulti
mately cost the life of her daugh
ter. And instead of accepting
responsibility for not teat hmg her
son the dangers of fire and for
leaving matches where he could
get at them, she took the easy way
out and blamed a cartoon.
Critics argue the mind of a 5
veur-old is easily impressionable.
If that's the case, should Ins mind
not be as easily impressed by his
mother ns she claims it was by
a guy named Butt head7
Even more ludicrous lire tin?
t laims by parents of young men
in the Northeast that their sons'
minds are sufficient mush that
a Disney movie could cause them
to believe it's cool to lie in the
middle of the street and hope a
truck doesn't crush their empty
skulls.
They were not impressionable
young 5-vear-olds. They were
between 17- and 24-voars-old and
should have known better The
mother of one of the victims
claimed percent of what gets
on TV or in the movies gets into
kids' heads."
Apparently the part about not
laying in the middle of a high
way was part of the 5 percent
that went in one ear and out the
other.
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SINGLE
MOTHER?
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studying the effects
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family. It you have
separated within
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For more information,
call Margo at the
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Cct. 27 $4
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Musi lie 21 or over
131U till
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Visoni
ipiUlwlu
The mothi'r lhi>n asked a ques
lion that goes to the (mart of the
issue "Wh> arc thov putting
these movies out for our i.hit
dren'" And this is where the gm
nmmirnl has dot idod to stop in
Kono is threatening legislation
that would ban violent program
in mg at certain hours, require l\
to rate its programs and to pro
vide warning labels for violent
shows
On (it again. tht> must base
solution i< being ignored — turn
the channel, don't go to violent
movies Imagine tint uproar that
would follow a suggestion that
newspapers stop covering certain
stories VVliat if the Megt.sfer
Guard decided to stop covering
homosexual issues Iwm auso the
Oregon (lit mins Allium e i laimed
doing so caused people to exper
iment with homosexualitv. and
that was had’
Sumo people may ns all the In
als of heavv-metnl performers
Ozzy Oslioume and |udas Priest
Osbourne was sued by the par
ents of teenagers who had < oni
milted suicide while listening to
Osbourne's song "Suicide Solu
tion " ludns Priest was sued on
similar grounds for its song "Bet
ter By You. Better By Me." whit h
the parents of the det eased
claimed contained bac kward
messages urging listeners to com
mit suicide Both suits proved
unsuccessful
In both cases, parents blamed
the recording industry for cans
p
In typical knee-jerk fashion, critics and
legislators are clamoring for the
entertainment industry to accept the
blame for these tragedies...
ing their children to kill thorn•
selves, instead of a< i opting the
fai l that their children wore
depressive. sun uinl alcohotii s
who liktilv would havn found a
wav to kill thomstilvi’s soonor or
Inter, song or no song.
The media do not i rente i io
leni e in six ioty. they rofloi t it
Although many people attempt
to compare television's early
years with the present day to
show the mi reuse in violent t on
tent. the fail to note that for many
years, the media ignored violent e
altogether The dramatic rise in
television/tnovie violent e is nol
so mm h Hollywood looking to
make a fast buck as it is the real
ities of modern sot lety finally
lining deemed worthy of disc os
sum.
Kven if there was a valid link
between violence m the media
and violence in the real world,
w ho would decide what we i an
and < annof watch/ Arguably lint
most violent programs on televi
sion art> reality, nr reality based
programs What’s tli«* different e
between < ar t liases and shoot
outs on i\Y!’I) Blur ami (.'< >l'Sv
One is real, one is In turn based
on reality
The t n pic a I evening nows
hroadi .ist i onlains more images
o( rotting i orpses and pimple
luting blown into me.it bv-prod
iii Is than any other show on tele
vision In fact, news programs
often get away with wlmt enter
tainmnnt media cannot. Tor
example. Madonna's "Kroticn"
v itleo. Iianned from even MT\' as
too rai y was shown m its entire
ty on A1U s \n’Jiilmr
The most oliyiints flaw with
efforts to control media i (intent
is dei idiltg who dei ides If the
dot isiun makers share your polit
it al or moral persuasions, you'll
pmUihlv act ept then choices Hut
not everyone shares the same
ideals Do we really want Pat
Huclianau's i idturiil warriors to
decide what we see' Today the
target is violent e What about
tomorrow ' Premarital sex' Any
sex' Positive portrayals of homo
sexuals (nut that there's a lot of
that now)' Ai i upturn e of non
(Christian religions'
It begins with Heavis and
Hutthead It ends with your free
dom.
Martin t'ishor is n i olimimst for
thr Kmcrald
1
1993 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON DOCK FOOTBALL
Get out your duck call and
flock out to the game this Satur
day. Because were making all the
noise wre can. So stand by your
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love em.
Oregon vs. WSU
Oct. 30 1:00pm
Homecoming
Student tickets: $2.00
with current UO I.D.
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STAND BY YOUR MALLARD.