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Show The Salt Lake Tribune OPINION Al3 Tuesday, May8, 2001 Television Executives Should TakeNotice, Stop Fouling Airwaves. Too bad the Hollywood writers didn’tstrike. It might have provided a CAL THOMAS respite from the air pollution some of numbers are finding other forms of entertainment and somepeople have TV writers, programmers, performers and executives — the Vulgar- because their programs can't be as vulgar as some cable TV shows. Specifically, Wright mentions the hit HBO series, “The Sopranos,” which fea- tures a level of violence, sexual acts and profanity the networks feel they can’t imitate. Instead of polling network and en- share have declined. Many people say they've stopped watching because of violent and sexual content. Increasing them crank out which is inappropriately labeled “entertainment.” ians atthe Gate, as a real entertainer, Steve Allen,called them in his posthumously published book — may be about to seek even lowerlevels. NBC President Bob Wrighthas senta letter to executives at his network and other TV studios and production companies, appearing to indicate that network broadcasters are disadvantaged years, network ratings and market even decided to get rid of their TVs, treating them like the other garbage they remove from their homes. TV executives prove howfar out of touch LOS ANGELESTIMES SYNDICATE watch. Ninety-three percent have turned off the TV or changed the channel during a program because of sexual content. A Federal Trade Commission report last year found that the entertainmentindustry is targeting violent films, music and video games to young people. In a Newsweek surveylastfall, more than ninein 10 parents ofchildren ages 5-17 said limiting the amount of violence children are ex- tertainment executives, Wright should consider what a vast majority ofthe public thinks. The May 15 issue of Family Circle magazine would be a factor in reducing crime. A Gallup poll taken after the Columbine High good placeto start. Seventy-seven per- School shootings found that 81 percent they are by concluding that what people wantis not less sex and violence, but more. Whenratings decline even further, they refuse to get the mesatdeeincrease thesleaze. b Wright, who has lobbied the cee York City Council to block a proposed resolution which endorses a federal plan for General Electric — NBC’s parent company — to clean up the Hudson River it.began polluting with PCBs in 1946, is apparently looking for new ways topollute the airwaves.Atleast when it comes to pollution, Wrightis consistent. cent of the men and womenpolled by the magazinesay they have a problem of American adults believe violententertainmentcontributes to violence in Steve Allen makes the point in Vulgarians at the Gate that the coarsening ofour culture doesn’t happen by accident: “ . . . the consequences of rearing millions ofinitially innocent children in a social atmosphere char- with the sexual content of TV. Sixty- society. acterized by vulgarity, violence, brut- posed to in the media is an important onepercentsay they don’t watch some Network executives closely watch showsbecause of sexual content, and 84 percent say there are some shows the numberof viewers they can attract because it determines how much they they won't allow their children to can charge advertisers. In recent ish manners, the collapse ofthe family, and general disrespect for traditional codes of conductis to chill the blood of even the mosttolerant of observers.” Network executives don’t have the moral fiber to stop pollution on their of Pediatrics says kids under age 2 should not be watching TV atall, and own, any more than somecorporate strictly limited to two hours per day. Turn off the TV or, better yet, get executives would clean upthe air and waterif they were notforced to do so. Censorship may not be the answerto polluted TV but parental responsibility is. A recent study by Children’s Hospital Medical Centerin Cincinnati foundthat40 percentof 2-year-olds are watching a minimum ofthree hours of TV per day. The American Academy those between 2 and 5 should be rid of it. Try dinner table conversation, meet your neighbors, read good books, rent old moviesor, if the TV remains, block out all but the really good things. Even networkexecutives mighttake notice and stop fouling the airwaves, thusraising the standard of popular culture forall. Bush Gang Brazenly Proposes a Daylight Raid on Social Security BY ROBERT RENO NEWSDAY It is a sound business principle that an unguarded convenience store or poorly ‘secured bank eventually in- Vitesitself to be knocked over. TheSocial Security system wasnot so tempting a target backin its infan- cy, when benefits were meager andit wasstill getting its legs as the nation’s universal guarantor of a secure old age. Its assets were not a particularly tempting mouthful for Wall Street to convert into a new cashline andit had not becomewhatit is today, the ripest fruit on thetree. Nowitis, and you have to admire the sheer brazenness with which the . Bush ganglast week proposed to stage a perfectly legal daylight raid on the Social Security trust funds. The occasion wasbrilliantly staged. There on the White House lawn was Daniel Patrick Moynihan, whom many people confuse with a liberal, who bestirred his old ‘bonesto give a sort of. American government,” then stood on his hands and yelled that Ameri- professorial respectability to the heist. ThenPresident Bush committed blasphemy when he proposed partially privatizing Social Security by suggesting Franklin DelanoRoosevelt,its creator, would have wanted it this way. : cans “might as well be saving their money in their mattresses.” Even more audacious was his “bipartisan” announce will, of course, be com- commission,a body ofselfless saints that Bush named to case thejoint and accounts are the way to save Social carry out his Treasury raid. It was a that the Social Security debate is al- ket happensto be in thetoilet. neatly stacked deck of proponents of Social Security privatization. ready over, that Wall Street has won and thatit’s only a question of impos- lordly commission has already been By now liberals are used to seeing FDR’s sleeping bones exhumed forall mannerof sordid purposes. They take it as an encouraging sign he now belongs to the ages, is safe from the per- sonal and political assaults of rightwing zealots who painted him as the mid-century liberal arch villain, and is installed forall timeas the colossus of20th century politics much the same as Lincoln adorns the 19th century and Washingtonthe 18th century. As he surrendered up Roosevelt’s: So much for a healthy debate on the merits and risks of making the stock marketthe index of a secure old age. Bush announced that the commission will be co-chaired by Moynihan, a supposed Democrat who's already madeup his mind helovesprivate ac- counts, and Richard Parsons,the chief operating officer of AOL Time Warn- er, a nominal Republican. Bush said Parsons hadvaliantly agreed to serve ghost to history, Bush somersaulted in “the spirit statesmanship.” of business andhailed Social Security as “one of the greatest achievements of the Bush’s spokesman Ari Fleischer saw nothing remarkable about the makeup of the commission. “The commission that the president will prised of people who share the president’s view that personal retirement Security,” he said. Fleischer suggests ing the president's will. Bush's strategy is as clear as it is bold: Create a phony Social Security crisis, then create a phony solution, then dangle the bait of $500,000 personal balances that future geezers might hoard into their old age. The prospectis as frightening as it is enticing. Imagine millions of drooling geezers tyrannizing their children and grandchildren with threats of disinheritance. Imaginethe cottage indus- them penniless and bewildered. Shudder at the idea of so muchundistributed wealth in the handsofpeople who. haveevery right to a secure and untroubled dotage. Try to figure out whatthey will do if they break a hip when the stock marAsit beginsits deliberations, this told to start with a mind closed to keeping Social Security as it is. Its recommendations, it was told by , “must include individually controlled voluntary personal retire- ment accounts.”If, in its wisdom, the commission concludes that these accounts are a harebrained idea,it must, presumably, do its duty and recommend them anyway. ways to separate them from their nest If he had planned to stick his hands into a partisan hornet's nest andrile disobedient Democrats into lying down in his path, Bush could hardly have acted more deliberately or eggs with schemes that will leave provocatively. tries thatwill spring up to invent new a3» Mother Dayis Sunday, NV “N, Ca lusive Dillard's @® Exc & Another great gift idea forMom! ele Elegantsatin bra with a unique center piece design that allows you to adjust for your best cleavage enhancement. Assorted colors, 32B, C, 34-36A-D and 38B,C. 18.00. *By mail Patio BeSes ETT) cool co we Ewer-| With |