crime scene

The cultural majority in America is up in arms over the rising levels of
violence and horrific images that have seeped into popular entertainment.
Movies, television, and music have always been controversial, but even
they can cross the line between poor taste and immorality. Entertainment
corporations and record labels don't even blink, when told of the
excessive torture or satanic lyrics found in material. Producers and
directors continue to push the envelop on what is "done in good taste."
Gangsta rap is one of the current problems of society. Popular
music for teens has always been controversial, or at least in conflict with
middle class attitudes. Teen music has always been under scrutiny by
those who are older. Parents, whether from the 60's or 90's, never
welcome the sounds of the younger generation. Unfortunately this fact
does not comfort someone when listening to Snoop Doggy Dog or Ice
Cube talk of sex, violence, beatings, and suicide. Hollywood, the
country's Mecca for TV and movies, is another contaminated disaster
area. This area has given us hero's such as Clint Eastwood, Humphrey
Bogart, and Bruce Willis. Once filmmakers would evoke sexual interests
through eye contact or a touch of the leg. Today cinematographers resort
to graphic sexual acts and horrific beatings. A poll by Newsweek stated
that sexual moderation and fidelity are normal for both married people
and for those who live together. In contrast, 7 out of 8 televised sexual
encounters involve extramarital sex (Newsweek, 1994). This trend is
startling when compared to the fact that children spend more time
watching television than they spend in school. According to the American
Psychological Association, a typical child sees 8,000 murders and
100,000 acts of violence on TV before graduating from elementary school
(Nation, 1994). The results of how television, specifically sex and
violence, affect children is not completely known. Although psychologists
state, "Aggressive children like to watch violent TV shows, and it appears
that watching violent TV shows makes children more aggressive; this is
presumably due to their exposure to aggressive models" (Eron,

1987).One of Hollywood's more remarkable aspects, is that it has
produced approximately 400 pictures that convey traditional integrity and
the mainstream virtues of love, loyalty, honor, duty, and compassion.
Consider movies such as Forrest Gump, Little Women, and The Lion
King. In contrast, a movie such as Natural Born Killers was intended to
imitate the link between violence and media attention in our culture.In the
long run, individuals will make decisions about what they will buy, read, or
see. Some will lean towards the vulgar and the pornographic. The
American society has some sense of this. They may be irritated or
outraged by pop culture, but the polls state that the principal courses of
violence and other national problems lie beyond the entertainment
industry (Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, 1995). Parents are
already aware that children are affected by the general decline of public
morality, family breakdown, lack of religion, and poor parenting. The
price we pay for our cultural freedom is the movies and songs that
influence people to act out their fantasies of grandeur. I would rather the
chaos of the free market than the government telling us what or what not
to see and hear. Our culture would be definitely poorer without those who
bring us daily news, weather, and sports. What would happen if
government began to censor our music, movies, and literature? Children
would grow-up never knowing the internal conflicts faced by Huck Finn,
the violent nature of the "Wild West" or the songs that built America
"Their blood has wash'd out their foul footstep's pollution," may sound like
a excerpt from a Snoop Dog song, It is actually part of the of the Star
Spangled Banner.