Don't blame H'wood
Is it me, or is everyone missing the point with regard to so-called offensive programming? ("Showbiz Guilt-Free About Kiddies," Daily Variety, Sept. 18)
Showbiz has every right to be guilt- free. Why? Because if every studio in Hollywood decided tomorrow to wipe out every scene from every movie and television show that James Steyer and his compatriots find offensive, overnight a new industry would spring up somewhere else that would cater to the unmet demands of the public.
People are in show business because they want to be in show business. Having chosen that career, they have no choice but to do their best to make the passion of their visions match the desires of their audience.
Due to that pesky First Amendment, the American public gets to watch pretty much what it deserves to see.
It's very easy to blame the supplier. It's quite facile to think that if you simply stop producing the junk people will stop wanting to see it. It's much trickier, of course, to try to understand why the American public craves the violence and the sex and even more difficult to find a way to curb America's appetites.
But blaming Hollywood for a decline in the culture, or decaying moral values, or an increase in violence, or sexual harassment, or any social ill, is like blaming the candy store because your kids' teeth are rotting.
Let's be very clear here. Mr. Steyer doesn't have to own a satellite dish, a VCR, a PlayStation, a stereo system or even a computer. And he doesn't have to let his children watch or listen to whatever they care to watch or listen to.
Having said that, I completely support his right to protest what is being produced. Not because it will stop production, but because it might curb demand. Protesting the content is one of the few ways to bring attention to what you consider harmful.
Note that you'll never see cruelty to animals portrayed in any significant way. Also, blatant racism no longer succeeds as popular entertainment. Why not? In the former instance it's because the American public doesn't want to see it. In the latter, it's because the American public has been taught that it shouldn't want to see it, even if it might otherwise enjoy racist humor.
When the NAACP doesn't like something, what do they do? They boycott. They get out their picket signs that tell potential patrons, in effect, "You should not watch this movie, even if you may want to. You should not support this form of entertainment." Perfectly legitimate and proper. What is a waste of time and a pitiful misdirection of energy is to try to make the producers feel guilty for producing it.
Maybe they feel guilty, maybe they don't.
It's utterly irrelevant what the producers feel, because it's the marketplace that will win out, and the market has no emotions.
Finally, there are community standards of decency that can be enforced. The public really does decide what is appropriate and not. For those who disagree with the community standards, there are many avenues of protest available. Hollywood is simply doing its best to show America exactly what it wants to see. Don't shoot the messenger.
The entertainment titans make their millions by holding a mirror up to America. The only thing Mr. Steyer will get out of smashing the mirror will be a bloody fist. There will always be someone with another mirror waiting in the wings.
-- John Bauman
The Gersh Agency
