Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
The constitutional scholar and director of the Madison Program at Princeton, Robert P. George, just posted a particularly provocative comment on Facebook. As you'll see, Robby's comment raises, and very definitely takes sides in, one of the permanent disputes in conservatism: liberty versus morality, or freedom from coercion versus the freedom to live in a decent society. To quote him:
Let me see if I've got this straight. The suits in the entertainment industry massively enrich themselves by marketing Lady Gaga to eleven year old girls, and we're supposed show that we're worldly, urbane, sophisticated people who haven't the slightest concern about conduct like this. Then we're shocked--shocked!--by drug use, provocative dressing, foul language, lewd conduct, meanness, and sexual promiscuity by tweens and young teens. Please count me among the simple, backward, unsophsticated hicks and rubes who think we should hold the entertainment business accountable the way we hold the tobacco industry and environmental polluters accountable.
Since "the way we hold the tobacco industry and environmental polluters accountable" is by way of laws, regulations, and fines--that is, by way of government coercion--Robby is calling here, if I'm reading him correctly, for expanding the government's power over the music industry, television, and Hollywood.
Rob Long? Good people of the Ricochetti? What think?
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Comments:
Apr '12
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
Environmental pollution, indeed!
Dec '11
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
Cursing credits?
Oct '10
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
Wouldn't parents putting their foot down help? And isn't it time conservatives took a page from the left and started boycotting corporations that profit off of this or whose ads keep biased media going?
Jun '10
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
Rather than being forced to provide free contraceptives and abortifacients to women, maybe government should provide free and effective parental control systems for television and the internet. You don't have to use it, but if you want to, it's free.
Oct '10
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
Mel Foil
AFAIK, there already are such options for parental control of tv and internet
Apr '12
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
Mel,
TANSTAAFL!
Jun '10
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
TeamAmerica: Mel Foil
AFAIK, there already are such options for parental control of tv and internet
Not all of them are effective, especially with tech-savvy kids.
Dec '11
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
I strongly disagree. How quickly would a government agency formed to police the entertainment industry for lewdness turn to policing it for political incorrectness? Very quickly.
May '12
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
Fun topic, but I don't think it trumps the 1st Amendment.
Why are parents letting 11 year olds tune into Lady Gaga and then buying the products her sponsors are hawking?
The entertainment industry persists because we keep buying what they are selling.
Jun '10
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
Then, turn off the filter. If you can't turn it off, then it's no good. I agree.
Sep '10
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
Peter Robinson
Since "the way we hold the tobacco industry and environmental polluters accountable" is by way of laws, regulations, and fines--that is, by way of government coercion--Robby is calling here, if I'm reading him correctly, for expanding the government's power over the music industry, television, and Hollywood.
It sure sounds like it to me. Surely, a person who once wrote speeches for President Reagan does not agree with this sentiment. Please say it ain't so, Mr Robinson.
Aug '10
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
You're gonna need trial lawyers, lots of them.
Dangle that out in front of them , with an additional lagniappe for the Attorney Generals state by state, and pretty soon -- boom !
This could work.
Sep '10
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
Our society should fight back against this filth. Our government should not.
Mar '11
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
I think of Charles Murray's Losing Ground argument here. The government will get on board with regulating smut just as soon as it is starting to get better on its own through market forces because the public is fed up with it. Then the smut will get worse.
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
Why were movies, music, and television so much more wholesome in the 1950's? Surely no one would credit government intervention or regulation. There was less filth in pop culture because people wouldn't stand for it. Now people crave it. And there ain't nothing a government —especially a govt constrained by the bounds of our Constitution—can do to reverse the cultural decay.
However, one thing government really ought to do is end the special tax breaks and subsidies of the entertainment industry.
Jun '10
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
To the extent that the internet has become the public square, and can't be ignored by the average citizen who wants to stay politically informed, the internet should maybe provide some of the protections that the public square provides. Segregate the strip clubs from the civic center mall for example. You should be able to avoid the filth if you're at least trying to avoid it.
Edited on September 20, 2012 at 7:49pmMar '11
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
According to his bio, Prof. George is one of Americas most "influential conservative Christian thinker[s]."
Here's a conservative Christian idea: how about parents start taking their responsibilities seriously enough to instill their children with some common sense?
With all respect to the esteemed professor, the line of reasoning that says "since we already have bad policy with X (i.e. environmental regulation), it's okay to adopt bad policy Y (censorship of entertainment)" is straight out of junior high school.
Jan '11
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
But if you didn't promote sex, or the stupidity of religion, or the sublime wisdom of teenagers ... what ... would ... writers ... write about?
Aug '12
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
This would only work in a society which pretty much uniformly agreed with these values, where it would be pretty much unnecessary. In this society, it would drive the offensive material underground, increasing its profitability and therefore its profusion. And by adding a frisson of forbiddenness, probably increase its appeal.
May '10
Re: Robert George: We Should Treat the Entertainment Industry the Way We Treat Polluters
Peter, I read him differently. I don't read him as calling for laws and government intervention. I read him as calling for moral opprobrium.