Will Hastert, Lott Investigate the Commercial Rewards that Feed Media Violence?

[Gary Ruskin <gary@essential.org>]

Commercial Alert					April 30, 1999

	Ralph Nader sent this letter today to House Speaker Dennis Hastert and
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott:

April 30, 1999

The Honorable Trent Lott
Majority Leader
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
via telecopier (202) 224-4639

The Honorable Dennis Hastert
Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
via telecopier (202) 225-7733

Dear Speaker Hastert and Majority Leader Lott:

	Following the tragic homicides at Columbine High School last week, and
the mourning over the loss of life there, you said that you would
convene a national conference on youth and culture.  Such a conference
is sorely needed.

	But it must not be an empty dialogue.  Our country needs better. 
Throughout the last week, politicians and the media have searched for
the causes behind the disaster in Littleton, and have been quick to
ascribe it, in part, to the violence in video games, music, the
Internet, pop culture, Hollywood, movies, and television. 

	Such comments, though understandable, do not go far enough.  They stop
at the symptom, failing to reach the cause.  They do not grasp the
central fact of our commercial corporate culture: it is produced by
people in corporations who are getting rich by promoting products to
teenagers; corporations governed by incentives that impel them to
respect no boundaries in exploiting the vulnerable minds of teenagers.  

	Every day, hundreds of companies work with one thought in mind: how to
manipulate children and teenagers to purchase video games and music, to
watch movies and television.

	In their quest for larger audiences and greater profits, the commercial
media predictably races to the lowest and basest standards, with ever
more blatant displays of violence, sex, crassness, and nihilism in
television, cable, movies, radio, video games and music.  These are the
motivations that relentlessly drive the creation, production and
marketing of ever more Doom, Quake, Basketball Diaries, Marilyn Mansons,
Mortal Kombat I & II & III & IV, Jerry Springers, Howard Sterns, South
Parks and the rest of it.

	It is easy to point the finger at the Marilyn Mansons.  But they are
merely instruments.  Focus on the deeper problems.  Behind every Marilyn
Manson are corporations and corporate executives who cynically draw
their large compensation packages from the fruits of such work.

	The national conference on youth and culture will be a charade unless
you discuss the corporations and the powerful, monied interests that
produce this culture, and vigorously insinuate it in the minds and
pockets of American youth.

	If you have the courage to trace the problem to its source, to focus
the national conference on youth and culture upon the commercial rewards
which give rise to this culture, and how we might alter these
incentives, and harness the power of corporations to produce a culture
that nourishes -- not harms -- its teenagers, you will do an important
service for this country, its parents, and their children, who are
surrounded by and conscripted into debasements and violence by
methodical, calculating corporate marketing that our teenagers may not
understand, and may not be able to defend themselves against.
	
	If you would like a copy of our book Children First: A Parent's Guide
to Corporate Predators, please call Mr. Ruskin at (202) 296-2787.

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader

Gary Ruskin							
Director

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Gary Ruskin | Commercial Alert 
1611 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite #3A | Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 296-2787 | Fax (202) 833-2406
http://www.essential.org/alert/ | mailto:gary@essential.org
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