Will Ashcroft stand up for children or corporations?
Gary Ruskin
gary@essential.org
Tue, 16 Jan 2001 11:11:23 -0500
Commercial Alert January 16, 2001
Commercial Alert sent letters today to Members of the U.S. Senate
Committee on the Judiciary, urging them to ask John Ashcroft,
President-elect George W. Bush's nominee for Attorney General, to
explain his views on the role of that office in standing up for the
nation's children and families against the aggressive assault of the
commercial culture. The letter follows.
Dear Senator:
Our children are in the cross-hairs of the entertainment and advertising
industries. These industries have enlisted sophisticated psychological
research techniques, the most potent devices of media influence and
persuasion, and increasingly the most brazen means of delivering their
commercial messages to vulnerable and impressionable children.
Together, they promote hedonism, violence, sensuality and anti-social
behavior, as well as the addictions of alcohol, gambling, tobacco and
overconsumption generally.
As our nation's top law enforcement official, the next Attorney General
will have considerable power to stand up for families and children and
against the aggressive marketing of violent entertainment, gambling,
pornography, alcohol and tobacco. We urge you to inquire whether John
Ashcroft, President-elect George W. Bush's nominee for Attorney General,
is up to this great challenge.
Marketing of Hollywood movies and violent entertainment to children.
Last year, Mr. Ashcroft ran campaign ads in support of efforts to help
parents prevent "Hollywood's decaying influence" on our society. As
Attorney General, he would have extensive powers to curtail the
influence of Hollywood and the entertainment industry on our children,
by working to restrict their ability to seduce children through
suggestive advertising. Does he intend to do so? If so, how?
Hollywood has even enlisted the power of the state and the compulsory
education laws to coerce children to watch ads in the public schools.
For example, on December 8, the in-school marketing company Channel One
promoted the movie "Dude, Where's My Car?," which glorifies the sexual
fantasies and drug use of two pot-heads who party so wildly that they
can't remember anything about the night before. Would Mr. Ashcroft look
for ways to curb such coercive marketing of Hollywood movies to
schoolchildren?
Mr. Ashcroft has been a forceful critic of the marketing of violent
entertainment to children. Following the Federal Trade Commission's
devastating report on such marketing, Senator Ashcroft said that
"Entertaining children with graphic mayhem, murder, corrodes children's
minds." He said that media company self-regulation is "right first step
to take, but more could be done." What is that "more"? Does Mr.
Ashcroft intend to step to the plate? Would he litigate to try to stop
the blatant marketing of violent entertainment to children? Would he
support efforts to hold media corporations liable for copycat violence,
or violence instigated by the viewing of violent entertainment? Would he
support Indianapolis's ordinance that bans minors from playing violent
or sexually explicit video games without parental consent? Would he
support requiring TV stations to run public service announcements, as a
condition of licensure, presenting the views of community leaders on
violent programming, before such programming or advertising?
Pornography. Mr. Ashcroft has a strong record of opposition to
pornography. That is encouraging, given that some of the world's
largest corporations produce or distribute pornography. For example,
last year The New York Times reported that "The General Motors
Corporation, the world's largest company, now sells more graphic sex
films every year than does Larry Flynt, owner of the Hustler empire. The
8.7 million Americans who subscribe to DirecTV, a General Motors
subsidiary, buy nearly $200 million a year in pay-per-view sex films
from satellite..."
How would Mr. Ashcroft use his position as Attorney General to reduce
the advertising and distribution of pornography? For example, would he
support eliminating the federal tax deduction for ads for pornography?
In his inaugural address for his second term as governor of Missouri,
Mr. Ashcroft said that ''the volume of pornography prevalent in our
society is implicated in sexual assaults against women and children in
our state.'' Would Mr. Ashcroft initiate and support Justice Department
efforts to hold pornographers liable for such harms?
Tobacco advertising. The deadly effects marketing of tobacco to
children are well-documented. Each day, another 3,000 children start to
smoke; about a third of them will grow sick and die from smoking-related
illnesses. The U.S. Supreme Court has recently agreed to hear the case
Lorillard Tobacco Co. v. Reilly, regarding the ability of a municipality
to ban tobacco billboards and signs within 1,000 feet of schools and
playgrounds. Would Mr. Ashcroft support or oppose such limitations on
tobacco advertising?
Gambling. Mr. Ashcroft has a strong record of opposing legalized
gambling. As Governor of Missouri, he opposed both riverboat gambling
and a state lottery. In 1998, Mr. Ashcroft expressed displeasure that
GOP chose to hold a meeting in Biloxi, Miss.: "Our party should not sell
its soul to the gambling lobby of this country...The truth is that
gambling is a cancer on the soul of our nation." What would Mr.
Ashcroft do to reverse the spread of legalized gambling and the
advertising of gambling and lotteries? Would Mr. Ashcroft use the power
of the Attorney General to hold gambling companies liable for deaths and
injuries related to gambling?
Alcohol advertising. In 1999, the Federal Trade Commission reported to
Congress that the alcohol industry often advertises to audiences with
large numbers of children -- football games, for example. In June,
1996, Joseph E. Seagrams & Sons Co. broke a 48 year old voluntary ban on
advertising hard liquor on television. Five months later, the Distilled
Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) re-wrote its Code of Good
Practice to allow its member distillers to advertise on radio and
television. Would Mr. Ashcroft oppose the advertising of beer, wine and
hard liquor on television in general, or on TV programs that have
substantial numbers of children watching?
Millions of parents are concerned about these issues, along with
teachers, clergy, grandparents, and Americans generally who are worried
about our culture, our values and our future. They feel that childhood
is too important to be left to these manipulators and seducers. The
media and advertising industries continue their relentless creep into
every nook and cranny of our children's lives. The question is, is Mr.
Ashcroft prepared to stand up for our children and our families?
Sincerely,
Gary Ruskin, Director, Commercial Alert
<-----letter ends here----->
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP
Please ask your senators to ask Mr. Ashcroft's how he would use the
offices of the Attorney General against the marketing of violent
entertainment, gambling, pornography, alcohol and tobacco to children
and families.
The congressional switchboard phone is (202) 225-3121. To find the fax
numbers and e-mail addresses of Members of Congress, see
<http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html>.
Commercial Alert opposes the excesses of commercialism, advertising and
marketing. Commercial Alert's website is at
<http://www.commercialalert.org/>.
Commercial Alert's materials are distributed electronically via the
commercial-alert mailing list <commercial-alert@lists.essential.org>. To
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PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
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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.commercialalert.org | mailto:gary@essential.org
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