Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Volume 7 Issue 1 Issue 1 - Winter 2004 Article 3

2004

Regulation through Intimidation: Congressional Hearings and Political Pressure on America's Entertainment Media

Kenneth A. Paulson

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Recommended Citation Kenneth A. Paulson, Regulation through Intimidation: Congressional Hearings and Political Pressure on America's Entertainment Media, 7 Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law 61 (2021) Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/jetlaw/vol7/iss1/3

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By Kenneth A. Paulson* criticism with a commitment to regulate 'C ongress shall make no law..." The first their own content. line of the FirstAmendment to the United States These hearings - in theory conducted to Constitution is unambiguous.Yes, there have been consider legislation-rarely lead to new debates and discussion about the scope and laws or government regulations. application of the forty-five words of the First Amendment, but those first four words say that Although legislative hearings are now common and Congress may not control what we say, write, and accepted as a logical component of the democratic express. process, there was once some question whether Yet despite that restriction, Congress has Congress had this authority at all. in fact had significant say in the content of America's entertainment media and popular culture, particularly programs and products ,directed toward young people. Over the past century, Congress and other governmental bodies have used hearings, the threat of legislation, The Constitution established a distinct and political pressure to accomplish what separation of powers for the legislative, executive government is unable to do directly: suppress and judicial branches, setting up a system of checks or discourage unpopular or unpalatable speech. and balances that would inhibit the abuse of power. This paper explores how Congress has How, then, to explain legislative hearings, an amalgam shaped and limited the content of films, comic of judicial elements-subpoenas, testimony, books, popular music, and television over the past contempt proceedings-and executive matters? century. Specifically, this report focuses on the The propriety of Congress conducting an path to "self-regulation" and industry-wide codes investigation was explored at length in 1792, after for these four media, and how government used a force of 1,500 troops under the direction of pressure and influence to spur the adoption of General Arthur St. Clair suffered an unprecedented standards. defeat at the hands of Indians in a region that would later become Indiana and Ohio.Approximately 600 The common elements: troops were killed, including many raw recruits.The * When members of Congress want a House of Representatives initially proposed that media industry to change or eliminate President George Washington conduct the constitutionally-protected free investigation, while General St. Clair sought review expression, they often conduct hearings by a military court. In the end, the House decided designed to pressure the industry. it had the authority to establish its own investigative • These hearings most frequently focus on committee to collect testimony and information. the impact of media or art on young Standing committees and sub-committees people. conduct congressional hearings. In the nation's * These hearings are designed to generate early years, these committees were temporary. extensive publicity and awareness. That changed, though, as the legislative workload * The media targeted by the hearings grew and issues became more complicated. "As frequently respond to Congressional the nation grew and took on more complex CURB CENTER SPECOAL FEATURE responsibilities and problems, Congress had to media. Most are challenged by those in authority develop expertise and the mechanisms to deal with during the first generation of use or distribution. the changing world. And so, from a somewhat haphazard arrangement of ad hoc committees evolved a highly specialized system of permanent committees," Congressional Quarterly reported in How Congress Works. Through hearings, congressional While the focus of this paper is on committees can gather detailed testimony and Congressional hearings, pressure-particularly during information about emerging issues and pending the first half of the 20t century-was often brought legislation, calling on experts to provide depth and perspective. That power to convene hearings can illuminate " That po ver to convene hearings the legislative process, but it can also be used can illul inate the legislative pro- as a weapon. cess, but it can also be used as a SBo Se tweapon.

directly, through state laws or local ordinances. There was no need for a public exploration of Time and again, arts and media targeted to a media content or implications for the First youthful audience have faced congressional scrutiny. Amendment because the First Amendment did not Highly visible hearings and negative publicity have apply. combined to pressure these youth-oriented media It was not until 1925 in Gitlow v. New York into limiting the scope of their content. that the U.S. Supreme Court found that the First Hearings and the specter of government Amendment's guarantees even applied to the states. censorship spanning a century have spurred It was not until pivotal Supreme Court cases in the "voluntary" regulation of entertainment and late 1940's and early 1950's that entertainment media storytelling for each new generation. From local began to enjoy the protection historically afforded pressure on early filmmakers, through the 1950's to news media. scrutiny of comic books and the 1980's examination The experiences of the movie industry- of rock music, to more recent hearings on television both before and after First Amendment and film, legislators have sought to curb entertainment protection-are illustrative. Faced with censorship media content without running afoul of the First from communities all over America and a growing Amendment. demand for federal legislation to curb perceived This trend to control media content on a excesses in film, the industry embraced self- national basis stemmed from a convergence of new regulation. Decades later, with freedom of speech and emerging media and content specifically directed through film firmly established, the industry retained toward young people. The media targeted by the same strategy, recognizing a need to keep Congressional hearings into content over the past Congress at bay. century vary in tone, approach, and popularity, but might collectively be described as "young culture" Movies, contemporary music, and other forms of A. Before the Hstbmenment entertainment are literally the culture of the young, but they are also young in the sense that they are In the late nineteenth century, dime novels the products of technological advances and new targeting children were widely criticized, but this reaction paled in comparison to the response to the birth of the motion picture industry. Suddenly there Regulation Through Dntimidation was a medium that reached audiences nationwide the court characterized movies as being mere with a powerful and emotional impact. This was also entertainment and not worthy of expanded a medium with tremendous appeal to the young, protection. It concluded that "the exhibition of leading to fears about the corruption of morals and motion pictures is a business pure and simple ... values. not to be regarded, nor intended to be regarded ... The first public screenings of films, then as part of the press of the country or its origins of known as kinetoscopes, came at the Chicago World's public opinion. They are mere representations of Fair in 1893, followed by commercial peep-show events, of ideas and sentiments published or known." boxes in New York City in 1894. In 1896, Edison's In his majority opinionJustice McKenna also racy film, Dolorita's Passion Dance, led to long lines noted that movies "may be used for evil, and against that possibility the statute was enacted." Holding that "pictorial representation" is With FirstAmendmentprote set aside, inappropriate for some subjects, Justice the only pathwas to build a1)Ublicpercep- McKenna noted that riitted several states tion that the film industry w. cOos supervised motion to wholesome entertainmer.t and would pictures"in the interest of the public morals attainthat goal without gover 'help and welfare .... We would have to shut our or interference. eyes to the facts of the world to regard the precaution unreasonable or the of enthusiastic men on the boardwalk in Atlantic legislation to effect it a mere wanton interference City and the subsequent banning of the movie. with personal liberty." That ruling meant that the By 1907, the city of Chicago, encouraged by film industry would face content challenges from editorials in the Chicago Tribune, gave the chief of hundreds of local municipalities. A film could be police the power to censor movies.Two years later, edited and chopped according to the whims of local a private institute launched the National Board of censors. Censorship of Motion Pictures, a reviewing body The movie industry had to find a way to that would charge moviemakers for the service and stem the tide of government intervention. It began provide an endorsement for films that met the that process with its first self-regulatory body, a Board's standards. Some communities used the strategy that would be revisited by moviemakers Board's findings to determine whether a film could and other media for decades to come. After all, be shown. Over the next few years, though, the what were the options? With First Amendment influence of the Board waned as some studios protection set aside, the only path was to build a refused to participate, leaving censorship to a growing public perception that the film industry was number of government boards. committed to wholesome entertainment and would State regulation of movies was challenged attain that goal without government "help" or in 1915 on First Amendment grounds.The ruling in interference. Mutual Film Corp. v. Industrial Commission of Ohio In 1916, the studios founded the National would set the stage for both governmental censorship Association of the Motion Picture Industry, which and "voluntary" industry regulation for the next developed a series of content guidelines and thirty-seven years. In this case, the U.S. Supreme threatened non-complying studios with expulsion Court upheld Ohio's film censorship board, paving from the organization. That was a first step, but the way for similar bodies throughout the country. Hollywood's challenges deepened. In finding that the board's actions violated neither "The studios were going through an the First Amendment nor the Ohio Constitution, economic crunch in the early twenties," according CURB CENTER SECAL FEATURE to Frank Miller, the author of Censored Hollywood. A of the Production Code, a self-regulating device "series of epidemics had cut into film attendance:' designed to fend off government action.The preface including a public reluctance to "risk exposure to to the code made the case to the public: crowds" and increasing competition from the radio media. "With the decline in box-office sales, the Motion picture producers recognize threat from state censors became critical. When the high trust and confidence which New York State set up its own censorship board in have been placed in them by the 1921, threatening the nation's largest film market, people of the world and which hive the studio heads knew that they had to do something made motion pictures a universal before it was too late." form of entertainment. They That "something" was the formation of the recognize their responsibility to the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of public because of this trust and America (MPPDA), to be led by Will H. Hays, because entertainment and art are President Warren Harding's postmaster general. important influences in the life of a With a mandate to head off government nation. interference and to clean up films for the benefit of Hence, though regarding the industry, Hays became the single-most influential motion pictures primarily as figure in early motion picture history. entertainment without any explicit In his 1955 memoir, Hays recalled that he purpose of teaching or propaganda, decided to take the job after overhearing his son they know that the motion picture and two nephews argue over which one would play within its own field of entertainment film hero William S.Hart during a game of cowboys. may be directly responsible for spiritual or moral progress, for I realized on that Christmas morning higher types of social life, and for that motion pictures had become much correct thinking. as strong an influence on our During the rapid transition children and on countless adults, too, from silent to talking pictures they as the daily press. The juvenile have realized the necessity and the argument which I had overheard opportunity of subscribing to a confirmed my feeling and my fears Code to govern the production of that the great motion picture talking pictures and of re- industry might as easily become a acknowledging this responsibility. On corrupting as a beneficial influence their part, they ask from the public on our future generations. and from public leaders a sympathetic understanding of their Hays took the job in December 1921 and spent the purposes and problems and a spirit next decade trying to encourage the studios to tone of cooperation that will allow them down what was for the time both suggestive and the freedom and opportunity violent content. necessary to bring the motion But these lists of "don'ts" and "be carefuls" picture to a still higher level of were not fully embraced by the studios and pressure wholesome entertainment for all for legislation began to mount. Congress kept the the people. heat up. The House Committee on Education held Key principles in the 1930 Production Code include hearings in 1925 and 1926 to explore establishing the following: the Federal Motion Picture Commission. In 1928, an unrelated organization called the Federal Motion No picture shall be produced that will lower Picture Council began a campaign for federal the moral standards of those who see it. legislation that would curb the content of movies, a Hence the sympathy of the audience should movement that drew the support of newspaper never be thrown to the side of crime, mogul William Randolph Hearst. wrongdoing, evil, or sin. In response to the growing pressure, Hays and the MPPDA announced the adoption in 1930 ReguDation Through ntimidation

Correct standards of life, subject only to * No film or episode may throw ridicule on the requirements of drama and any religious faith. entertainment, shall be presented. * The treatment of bedrooms must be governed by good taste and delicacy.

These selected bDid the industry overreact? Did it re- passages convey just s 1 ecause of some of the strict the content of movi restrictions on some irrational fear of cc)ngressional filmmakers imposed by the industry and regulation? motivated by a fear of state and local legislators.The ideas of both screenwriters and * Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, directors were altered, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation. often against their will, and the public often left movie theaters with a dramatically different message than * (Crimes) shall never be presented in such a the film's creators originally intended. way as to throw sympathy with the crime This self-regulatory scheme affected some of as against law and justice or to inspire others the following with a desire for imitation. America's best-known films. Consider examples: " The use of liquor in American life, when not required by the plot or for proper " Gone With the Wind producer David 0. have Rhett Butler characterization, will not be shown. Selznick won a battle to tell Scarlett O'Hara "Frankly, my dear, I don't * The sanctity of the institution of marriage give a damn:' but only after agreeing to delete and the home shall be upheld. Pictures shall a number of other Butler lines, among them not infer that low forms of sex relationship "The world is full of beds, and the beds are are the accepted or common thing. full of women." He also agreed to show Melanie's childbirth scene in silhouette. * Excessive and lustful kissing, lustful embraces, suggestive postures and gestures, are not to * In Bing Crosby's family-friendly Going My be shown. Way, the Hays office objected to the phrase "Ah, pig-dust" and urged that two of the " In general, passion should so be treated that priests be portrayed in a more dignified these scenes do not stimulate the lower and manner. baser element. * The producers of Casablanca were told they * Sex hygiene and venereal diseases are not could not hint at a sexual relationship subjects for motion pictures. between Rick and lisa during their time together in Paris. * Pointed profanity (this includes the words "God: "Lord' "Jesus' "Christ," unless used * In the 195 1 screen version of Tennessee reverently, "Hell," "S.O.B.," "damn," and Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, "Gawd"), or every other profane or vulgar filmmakers were told they could not portray expression however used, is forbidden. Blanche as a nymphomaniac or Allan as a homosexual. * Dances suggesting or representing sexual actions or indecent passions are forbidden. The Production Code also meant that many unpopular or controversial ideas were off-limits. CURB CENTER SPECOAL FEATURE

Charles Chaplin's 1947 film Monsieur Verdoux tells An innocent, inspiring story was it the story of a man who marries several women and not? It was not, said the gentlemen then murders them for their wealth. When of Capitol Hill. The Senate felt itself captured, he is unrepentant and compares his actions cruelly maligned by the motion to nations at war. In demanding changes in the film, picture industry and struck back., Production Code head Joe Breen was "clearly trying They wounded the movie moguls to decide what ideas may and may not be expressed where they would be pained the on screen," according to film historian Frank Miller. most - in the wallet. They promptly "Censorship prevented Hollywood from passed Senate Bill No. 280, which interpreting the morals and manners, the economics made compulsory block booking of and politics, and the social and ethical issues facing films illegal. The law demolished the American Society in direct and honest terms" wrote vast and hugely profitable Gregory D. Black in Hollywood Censored. distribution system of the move Did the industry overreact? Did it restrict the industry. content of movies because of some irrational fear of congressional regulation? Gerald Gardner, author That demonstration of power was exactly what the of The Censorship Papers, doesn't think so. movie industry was trying to avoid when it adopted its Production Code. Of course, there was no When all the rival stu dios of admonition in the code against embarrassing Hollywood, with unaccuIstomed Congress. solidarity, agreed to set up a self- censoring 6/ machinery The importance of motion pictures as called the Hays Office, it an organ of public opinion is not less- was primarily ened by the fact over fear that that they are designed the U.S. to entertain as well as to inform. 9 Congress, in its wisdom, might pass federal legislation mandating government censorship of the movie industry. Any who feel that such fears might Amend ment be have been paranoid are invited to examine the results triggered by Frank Capra's classic comedy, Mr In 1952, some unexpected help came from Smith Goes to Washington. another branch of government, the U.S. Supreme Congress is a powerful body that Court, when it rendered a decision that would can severely punish an industry that forever change the nature of America's movies and affronts it. give the film industry a real weapon with which to defend the content of their work. In a unanimous Mr Smith Goes to Washington focused on decision in Joseph Burstyn v.Wilson, the U.S. Supreme a young senator, played by Jimmy Stewart, who Court decided that the NewYork Board of Regents exposes fraud among his Congressional colleagues could not ban Roberto Rossellini's The Miracle for with a long and debilitating filibuster on the Senate being "sacrilegious" This pivotal case extended First floor. Amendment protection to films. The Miracle tells the story of an unstable young woman who is seduced by a stranger.The girl becomes pregnant, convinced that the man was a Regulation Through Dntimidadion saint and that the baby's birth will constitute a working its way into theatrical productions miracle. The New York Board of Regents initially and such experimental forms as the approved the film, but backtracked after protests happening. With the Production Code firmly from the Catholic Church. Film distributor Joseph in place, however, much of this was kept off Burstyn appealed the case to the Supreme Court, the nation's movie screens. Even some setting the stage for a landmark decision. The television dramas were proving more liberal majorityfpinion by Justice Tom Campbell Clark in their choice of subject matter than held: Hollywood's movies. The obvious path for Hollywood to take would have been the It cannot be doubted that motion scrapping of the Production Code pictures are a significant medium altogether in favor of a system of age for the communication of ideas. classification similar to those used in other They may affect public attitudes countries. and behavior in a variety of ways, ranging from direct espousal of a That was precisely what Jack Valenti-the political or social doctrine to the new president of the Motion Picture Association of subtle shaping of thought which America (MPAA), MPPDA successor-had in mind. all artistic characterizes Spurred in part by the U.S. Supreme Court decision expression. The importance of in Ginsberg v. New York which found that content motion pictures as an organ of protected by the First Amendment may have less public opinion is not lessened by protection if distributed to children,Valenti managed the fact that they are designed to in 1968 to get the industry to retire the Production entertain as well as to inform. Code and adopt a new age-based system. Movies The Burstyn decision did not lead to would be labeled according to content as follows: abolition of the Production Code, but it did undercut (G)-suggested for general audiences; (M)- the power of government censors that the film suggested for mature audiences adult and mature industry had been trying to appease. In the years young people; (R)-restricted, such that persons following Burstyn, filmmakers pushed the envelope under 16 not admitted unless accompanied by parent ever more aggressively, reflecting shifting norms in or adult guardian; and (X)-persons under 16 not society as well. "With the dawn of free love, men admitted. walking on the moon, and the liberalization of every In many ways, the new ratings system was a aspect of society, the Hays code (and even the Ten public relations masterstroke. It hastened the Commandments upon which the code was based) dismantling of the remaining local censorship boards appeared as old as a 78-rpm record," wrote film and discouraged new legislation. It also became the columnist Rod Gustafson. model for government bodies seeking to pressure media into some form of self-regulation. Time and The film industry ran the real risk of losing again, legislators over the next four decades would touch with a changing nation. Historian Frank Miller say "Why can't we institute a ratings system like we wrote: have in movie theaters?" The ratings system did what it was intended By 1966, morals in the U.S. had loosened to to do, casting the film studios as responsible citizens the extent that couples were beginning to and taking governmental heat off the movie industry. live together openly without benefit of But like the Hays office and production Code before marriage, teen pregnancy was on the rise, it, it has also had a profound impact on what and the younger generation was not only Americans see on film. experimenting with such drugs as marijuana The ratings system has evolved over the and LSD, but flaunting it. Racial minorities years, adding a PG- 13 rating and replacing the stigma were fighting fdr equal rights and great public of an "X" with a new "NC- 17" rating. But the core visibility, while homosexuals were just system remains: a central authority to monitor and beginning their move into the public eye. influence the content of movies. AsWashington Post Moreover, the arts were exercising greater critic Tom Shales wrote in 1999: freedom than ever before, with nudity CURB CENTER SPECOAL FEATURE Valenti has denied it tirelessly and collection reprinting popular comic strips as a disingenuously, but the MPAA ratings • giveaway for Proctor & Gamble, sold briskly when are censorship. The threat of an the publishers tried putting a 10-cent price on the NC-17 has forced innumerable book. Titles like New Comics and Popular Comics filmmakers back to-the editing room were soon to follow, with similar success, A new to cut out scenes Valenti and his publishing industry was born. board of anonymous film raters In time, comic strip reprints werclipplanted don't like. They also censor some by new content designed expressly for comic books. films at the script stage, cautioning When a new character called Superman began filmmakers to go easy in spots that driving unprecedented sales of a half-million copies might prove troublesome later. If of Action Comics each month, publishers retooled, the authors of books were introducing hundreds to titles devoted to super- subjected to similar censorship, heroes, science-fiction and crime. every writer in America would be AfterWorld War II,the comic book industry screaming bloody murder. Not shifted to racier and more violent fare. Publishers every movie is a work of art (nor is recognized the appeal of scantily clad women to its every book or painting), but the audience of both servicemen and teenage boys. motion picture is an art form. Surely that much has been NickyWright explained the pervasive imagery in The established by now. The producers Classic Era of American Comics: of mechanical junk like "Wild Wild West" are not hampered by the In science-fiction comics, the space- ratings system, but serious traveling women got away with filmmakers who tackle serious wearing up-lift metal bras that themes are. Howard Hughes would have been proud to have invented for Jane Russell, the briefest of briefs, and

n~von - r,0Mo r 2 fetching high heel boots. In war comics, the girls hung suspended from an airplane, wearing tight mini- skirts, and flashing their stocking

A similar pattern of congressional pressure, self-regulation, and " When a new character called Superman content control can be seen in the history of began driving unprecedented sales of a comic books, another half-million copies of Action Comics each youth-oriented industry and example month, publishers retooled, introducing of "young culture" hundreds to titles devoted Although a to super-he- newsstand staple for roes, science-fiction and crime.9 9 many years, comic books emerged as a new and groundbreaking art form 70 years ago. The first tops. When women became the newsstand sales of comic books occurred in 1933, vogue in comic books, no holds building upon the success of earlier comic strip were barred. compilations published as books or promotional items. Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics, a Regulation Through Dntimidation Crime comics used the same images, along Despite the Winters ruling, critics of comic with extremely violent content. Crime Does Not books pressed onward. The most visible was Dr. Pay cautioned young people against a life of crime, Fredric Wertham, the senior psychiatrist for New but delivered that message through grisly scenes of York City's Department of Hospitals from 1932 to shootings, knifings, and even a live burial.The comic 1952. In August 1948, four months after Winters, book boasted more than 5,000,000 readers monthly. Wertham tied comic book reading to criminal As the more explicit content drew readers, conduct at the annual Congress of Correction of it also drew critics. Parents and church groups spoke the American Prison Association, where he out against crime comic books, drawing attention presented his paper "The Betrayal of Childhood: from the news media. In March 1948, ABC radio Comic Books." Wertham argued that comic books broadcast "What's Wrong With the Comics?" on its exposed children to criminal and sexually abnormal "America's Town Meeting of the Air." As public ideas and offered young delinquents "a pressure grew, cities and states explored ways to correspondence course in crime:" He saw legislation regulate the content of comic books. That legislative limiting the content of comic books as a likely solution impulse was slowed, however, by the U.S. Supreme to the problem. Court's pivotal decision in Winters v. New York. His home state of New York, the corporate Two thousand copies of Headquarters home of most comic book publishers and printers, Detective, True Cases from the Police Blotter had explored just that in series of bills and hearings from been confiscated for violating a state law that 1941 to 1955. In 1941, NewYork passed one of the prohibited the sale of "any book, pamphlet, magazine, earliest laws intended to control the content of comic newspaper or other printed paper devoted to the books.The statute empowered a city's chief executive publication, and principally made up of criminal news, to seek an injunction against any "obscene, lewd, police reports, or accounts of criminal deeds, or lascivious, filthy, indecent, or disgusting" comic books. pictures, or stories of deeds of bloodshed, lust or While the Winters case stalled new crime." legislation in the late 1940's, Wertham nonetheless The Supreme Court found that the law began writing Seduction of the Innocent a 397-page violated the First Amendment guarantee of freedom indictment of the comic book industry. Largely a of the press and the Fourteenth Amendment revisiting of themes thatWertham had explored over guarantee of equal protection under the law. The the previous six years, Seduction captured national court concluded that magazines intended primarily attention when an excerpt titled "What Parents for entertainment enjoy the same protections as Don't Know about Comic Books" appeared in the more serious published works. Justice Reed wrote Nov. 1953 issue of the Ladies' Home Journal. for the majority: Among Wertham's assertions in Seduction are the The line between the informing and following: the entertaining is too elusive for the protection of that basic right. * On pornography and comic books: "the Everyone is familiar with instances difference between the surreptitious of propaganda through fiction. What pornographic literature for adults and is one man's amusement, teaches children's comic books is this: in one it is a another's doctrine. Though we can question of attracting perverts, in the other see nothing of any possible value to of making them:" society in these magazines, they are * On homosexual overtones in Batman as much entitled to the protection comics: of free speech as the best of literature. The Batman type of story helps to fixate homoerotic tendencies by suggesting The Winters decision led to similar laws being the form of an adolescent-with-adult or overturned in eighteen other states and created a Ganymede-Zeus type of love- presumption of First Amendment protection for relationship... They constantly rescue comic books. each other from violent attacks by an unending number of enemies. The feeling CURB CENTER SPECIAL FEATURE is conveyed that we men must stick chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile together because there are so many Delinquency. Kefauver had become a national political villainous creatures who have to be figure after leading an investigation of organized

At home they lead an idyllic live life. They hey in sumptuous quarters, are Bruce with bea W a y n e utiful flowers in large and"Dick" vases, an d have a butler, Alfred. Grayson. B r u c e Batman i 3 sometimes shown in a Wayne is dressing F described ;own. 9 as a "socialite" and the official relationship is that Dick is Bruce's ward. crime. A probe into juvenile delinquency promised They live in sumptuous quarters, with more of the same. According to Kefauver biographer beautiful flowers in large vases, and have Joseph Bruce Gorman: a butler, Alfred. Batman is sometimes shown in a dressing gown. As they sit It was Kefauver's involvement with by the fireplace the young boy domestic issues that attracted the sometimes worries about his partner: most attention and garnered him "Something's wrong with Bruce. He the headlines which were so hasn't been himself these past few days." important in preparing the way for It is like a wish dream of two a bid for the presidency in 1956. homosexuals living together. Kefauver's critics were cynical about the sincerity of the senator's interest On Superman and race relations: "The in the topics on which comic-book Superman has long been he focused between recognized as a symbol of violent race 1952 and 1956 and one journalist accused Kefauver of superiority.The television Superman, looking "prospecting for publicity" with his like a mixture of an operatic tenor without eye on the 1956 nomination. his armor and an amateur athlete out of a health-magazine advertisement, does not In a 2001 interview, veteran comic book artist only have"superhuman powers, but explicitly Carmine Infantino recalled the political heat. belongs to a 'super-race" Kefauver "wanted to be president at that time, so Wertham's timing could not have been better. His he found a great vehicle here.And he jumped in and article in the Ladies' Home Journalappeared just as all of a sudden the attack got vicious. The people the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency who were distributing books got very nervous, and sought input from social workers, church they started shipping comic books back at us. And organizations, and others who worked with young we were getting returns up to 90, 95 percent. So people. A questionnaire sent to 2,000 people asked we got desperate." for opinions about the cause of delinquency. A The Senate questionnaire established a majority of the questionnaires citing a threat from foundation for the April 21, 1954, hearing of the comic books arrived after the Wertham article Subcommittee of the Committee on the judiciary appeared. to investigate juvenile delinquency and its specific The questionnaire was sent out under the inquiry into the content of comic books. In a ritual direction of Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver, the that would be repeated at future examinations of Regulation Through Intimidation young culture, the senators took pains to assert If it were my task, Mr. Chairman, to that they were not infringing on the First teach children delinquency, to tell them how Amendment. to rape and seduce girls, how to hurt people, "I wish to state emphatically that freedom how to break into stores, how to cheat, how of the press is not at issue in this investigation," to forge, how to do any known crime, if it Chairman Robert C. Hendrickson said."We are not were my task to do that, I would have to a subcommittee of blue-nosed censors.We have no enlist the crime comic book preconceived notions as to the possible need for industry... nobody would believe that you new legislation." Senator Kefauver echoed that teach a boy homosexuality without sentiment, explaining "We are not going into this introducing him to it; the same thing with hearing with the idea of condemning anybody or crime. censoring the press or impairing the freedom of the press. Among the most memorable, and misleading, The first witness was Richard Clendenen, comments by Wertham was his description of a executive director of the subcommittee, who story contained in Shock Suspenstories # 13 called presented a slide show of comic book covers and "The Whipping" The plot concerns a bigot who tries panels, describing in detail the plots of several to rally neighbors against a "Spanish Catholic family" particularly violent comic book stories. He also living in the community. A young man from the family submitted a survey of literature on juvenile falls in love with the bigot's daughter, enraging him. delinquency and comic books compiled by the The bigot incites his neighbors by saying that the Library of Congress. He acknowledged that experts boy had attacked his daughter. This leads to a lynch differed on whether comic books posed a threat to mob storming the young man's house, where they the welfare of children. grab and murder a figure in the dark. In the story's That split was reflected by the witnesses. final panels, readers learn that the victim is actually Wertham, along with Harris Peck, director of the the bigot's daughter, who had secretly wed the young bureau of mental health services for the New York man. City children's court, testified that comic books are The story was an indictment of racism, but dangerous to children. Two other experts, Lauretta Wertham cast it in a different light. Citing repeated Bender, senior psychiatrist at Bellevue Hospital, and references to racial epithets used in the story, he Gunnar Dybwad, the executive director of the Child claimed that the tale encouraged racial violence. "I Studies Association of America, said they saw little think Hitler was a beginner compared to the comic evidence of harm to children. book industry. They get the children much younger. Wertham was the star witness in the hearing They teach them race hatred at the age of four before and was treated with deference by the senators, they can read" including Kefauver, who made it a point to say he Wertham's distortion of the story enraged had read Seduction of the Innocent. Wertham's William Gaines, the next witness and publisher of testimony was short on scientific research and long Shock Suspenstories and other publications in the on anecdotes dramatizing the threat of comic books. Entertaining Comics (EC) group. The outraged Gaines responded: Wertham's testimony included the following statements: This is one of a series of stories designed to show the evils of race prejudice and mob As long as the crime comic books industry violence, in this case against Mexican exists in its present form, there are no Catholics.. .This is one of the most brilliantly secure homes... written stories I have ever had the pleasure There's a school in a town in New to publish. I was very proud of it.To find it York state where there has been a great deal being used in such a nefarious way made of stealing. Some time ago, some boys me quite angry. attacked another boy and they twisted his arm so viciously that it broke in two places, Gaines' indignation soon gave way to a defensive and just like in a comic book, the bone came posture, as senators honed in on EC Comics. through the skin... Senators had already been irritated by an upcoming CURB CENTER SPECAL FEATURE house ad for EC Comics he had submitted to the criminal; police and society's institutions should be committee. The ad lampooned those who were treated respectfully. Nudity and suggestive challenging the content of comic books, drawing illustrations were banned. However, in its zeal to parallels to Communists. This was powerful stuff at satisfy its critics, the industry adopted a number of the height of the Red Scare. If the senators were other idiosyncratic restrictions. It banned vampires, uncomfortable with being called censors, they were ghouls, werewolves, comic books with the words angered by the suggestion that they might share "horror" or "terror" in the title, and set limits on values with Communists. The Senators quickly how large the word "crime" could appear on a cover. turned to EC Comic's goriest content. The new Code, coupled with a backlash from In a pivotal exchange, Kefauver asked Gaines retailers rattled by the negative publicity about comic about the May 1954 issue of Crime Suspenstories, books, led to many comic book companies going which showed a man holding a bloody axe and his out of business. As companies left the field and wife's head, with the rest of her body lying on the others retooled their publications, the content of floor. comic books changed dramatically. Comics historian Kefauver asked Gaines whether he thought Amy Kiste Nyberg observed that "[g]radually, the that cover was in good taste. Gaines responded: type of comic book that had caused so much trouble for the industry disappeared, and what remained Yes sir; I do, for the cover of a horror were romance, teen and funny animal comics." comic. A cover in bad taste, for In 1964, Wertham would look back with example, might be defined as holding some pride at the number of comic book companies the head a little higher so that the that had been driven out of business. In his 1966 neck could be seen dripping blood book, A Sign for CainWertham wrote: from it and moving the body over a little further so that the neck of the When Seduction of the Innocent body could be seen to be bloody. appeared in the middle fifties, it started a grass-roots social Gaines' defense of this extraordinarily ugly reaction... A change occurred. cover was a turning point in both the hearing and in Murder in comic books decreased, press coverage. The next day, the New York Times and so did the number of crime- played the exchange prominently on page one; national comic-book publishers. Within a sentiment against the comic book industry grew. Feeling the nitlr,l kh., tkn rnm,: I j V....- ...... b b book industry decided It banned vampires, ghouls, to try to rehabilitate its werewolves, comic books with image by adopting a the new content code. words "horror" or "terror" in the The companies formed the Comics title, and set limits on how large Magazine Association of the word "crime" could appear on America in September of 1954 and offered a cover. the job of top code administrator to [ Wertham, who turned them down. Instead, the position went to Charles F. few years after the publication of Murphy, a New York City magistrate. Seduction of the Innocent twenty- The new Code, based in large part on the four out of twenty-nine crime- motion picture content code developed by the Hays comic- book publishers went out office, contained a number of predictable limitations. of business. But it was only a partial Crime stories should never create sympathy for a victory. We now meet some of the Regulation Through Dntimidation child comic-book readers as V ThBe m sik lsdustry parents of the 'battered child' or in Mapi ns wsd $el-Qen2o0sSe h*DP similar roles.

Amy Kiste Nyberg, author of Seal of Approval: The ,k. Were Not Gonnmsaike Ht.- Rock History of the Comics Code, contends the hearings were a sham from the outset: Musk off I 9

In fact, the intention of the hearings Rock 'n' roll and rhythm and blues music from the very beginning was to force have been controversial since the mid-1950s, but (or frighten) the publishers into rarely drew much attention on a national scale from adopting a self-regulatory code like politicians or legislators. Speeches by President that of the film industry. While Richard Nixon in 1970 and Vice-President Spiro declaring itself neutral in the debate Agnew in 1971 linking popular music to illicit drug over media effects, the committee use were the exceptions. Most efforts at influencing looked for evidence to challenge the content of popular music had come from local the contention by experts that or state governments. comics had little or no effect on That changed in 1984 when the national most children; this it did through a Parent Teachers Association (PTA) adopted a very selective examination of the resolution in response to complaints by a Cincinnati material and by discrediting those father who objected to explicit lyrics on the Prince who testified in defense of comics. album, 1999. The PTA's resolution pointed out that This tack was in keeping with the many parents have no way of knowing which records pattern of other congressional or cassettes contain explicit language or sexual investigations, where the committee content and asked record companies to label their perspective was determined before recordings to give parents guidance. the actual work began and the In May 1985, the national PTA asked investigations served as little more representatives from 62 record companies and the than a dramatization of the recording industry to attend a summit to address committee's point of view. the problem. Just seven companies responded, all turning down the invitation. Three companies offered The Comics Code was revised in 1971 and again in to meet with the PTA in private sessions. 1989, but has remained largely intact for almost fifty A year later,another organization with close years. It brought the industry goodwill and brought personal ties to Congress, the Parents' Music some assurances to parents, but it also had Resource Center (PMRC), got the attention of the devastating economic consequences for the industry recording industry.The PMRC was chaired by Susan and cast comic books as essentially a children's Baker, wife of then-treasury secretary James Baker medium. and Tipper Gore, wife of then-Senator Al Gore of That was not the case before the Code, as Tennessee. According to Linda Martin and Kerry publishers pushed boundaries in hopes of attracting Segrave in their book Anti-Rock "Of the original 20 young adult males, particularly servicemen. Although members of the PMRC, 17 were married to some underground comics with strong sexual and political of Washington's most powerful politicians," and as themes emerged in the 1960s, mainstream comic one writer noted, "half of them are married to ten books would not tackle these subjects until the percent of the Senate." 1990s when some publishers began experimenting Tipper Gore's participation was prompted with "mature" product lines. In 200 1, Marvel Comics after one of her young daughters bought a copy of exited the code agreement, saying it would rate its Prince's Purple Rain album. In True to Ourselves:A own comic books. This shift reflected an economic Celebration of Women Making a Difference, Gore reality: most comic books are now sold in comic explained: book specialty stores to collectors, and not on newsstands. It all started one day in 1985 when I listened to a song my I I year-old CURB CENTER SPECIAL FEATURE daughter had just bought and was A number of senators clearly had been stung shocked to discover just how by accusations that they were trying to undermine explicit the lyrics were. We decided the First Amendment. Before testimony began, to start a consumer movement to Senator Paul Trible of Virginia made it clear that the put pressure on the record industry committee's purpose was to put some pressure on to adopt a warning label for violence, the recording industry. As he explained, "The issue profanity and sexually explicit lyrics. before us is not prohibition, but rather the exercise Luckily Al has never expected me of moral suasion, the labeling of offensive lyrics, and to be a politically safe wife. When other efforts aimed at encouraging restraint regarding he first got elected, we made a the time, place and manner of certain speech in pledge. We said 'Let's never do question." anything we really don't believe in, His reference to "time, place and manner" even if it means losing an election.' echoed Supreme Court rulings upholding content- And though some people might find neutral government regulation of speech. Yet, this this hard to believe, he never once hearing was all about content. asked me to distance myself from "The First Amendment is not under attack the PMRC campaign. On the here:' Trible continued. "The Constitution is many contrary, he always said 'Keep it up. things to many people, but they do not serve it well, You're doing the right thing. I don't those that thoughtlessly invoke its words to defend care what people say: their every word and action"

Far from keeping his distance, Senator Gore helped ensure that the public pressure generated by the As explained, "The issue before us is PMRC was backed up not p]rohibition, but rather the exercise by the political of pressure of a highly moraI[suasion, the labeling of offensive lyr- visible Senate hearing. The U.S. Senate iS, anLd other efforts aimed at encouraging Committee on restra int regarding the time, place and Commerce, Science, and Transportation maT ter of certain speech in question." 9 convened its record JL JI. labeling hearing on September 19, 1985. An extraordinarily diverse and colorful Sen. Gore picked up the theme, citing the goals of group of witnesses provided testimony throughout the PMRC: the day. From the outset, Committee Chair John Danforth asserted that the hearing had no legislative They're not asking for any form of purpose, suggesting a neutrality that did not exist: censorship or regulation of speech in any manner, shape, or form.What The reason for this hearing is not they are asking for is whether or to promote any legislation. Indeed, I not the music industry can show do not know of any suggestion that some self-restraint and working any legislation be passed, but to together in a manner similar to that simply provide a forum for airing the used by the movie industry, issue itself, for ventilating the issue, whether or not they can come up for bringing it out in the public with a voluntary guidance system domain. for parents that wish to exercise what they believe to be their Regulation Through ntimidation

responsibilities to their children, to of regulation and legislation, which I try to prevent their children from think is our primary purpose. being exposed to material that is not appropriate for them. Only after hearing from six witnesses seeking media industry reform and seeing two extended slide and Any pretense of a neutral examination of video presentations did the committee call the first the issues disappeared with the calling of the first PMRC opponents. witness, Senator Paula Hawkins of Florida. Hawkins, Frank Zappa, a respected avant-garde rock chairman of the Children, Family, Drugs and musician, was aggressive in his testimony, criticizing Alcoholism subcommittee, and not an expert on the PMRC directly. Zappa argued that the "complete popular culture or contemporary music, presented list of PMRC demands reads like an instruction a slideshow of suggestive record album covers. manual for some kind of sinister toilet-training Hawkins followed that up with two rock music program to house-break all composers and videos-Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher" featuring a performers because of the lyrics of a few." Zappa stripping schoolteacher, and "We're Not GonnaTake also accused the Recording Industry Association of It," a Twisted Sister song about rebelling against America (RIAA) of cooperating with the PMRC in authority. order to secure passage of a law that would tie sales The next testimony came from four of blank tape to royalties for the recoding industry. members of the PMRC: Susan Baker, Pamela Howar, In an odd twist, Zappa suggested that all Sally Nevius, and Tipper Gore, along with Jeff Ling, a recordings be issued with a full set of lyrics, possibly frequent lecturer on the dangers of rock music. with government participation: Baker alleged that contemporary music bore some responsibility for "epidemic proportions of teen If you consider that the public needs pregnancies and teen suicides." She also linked rock to be warned about the contents music to a seven percent increase in the number of of the records, what better way than rapes in America. She did not offer documentation to let them see exactly what the to support these claims. songs say? That way you do not have Like Hawkins, Ling presented a slideshow on to put any kind of subjective rating suggestive images and lyrics, heavily sprinkled with on the record.... But in order for it profanity and lurid language. After the slide show, to work properly, the lyrics should senators asked a number of friendly questions of be on a uniform kind of a sheet. PMRC members, eliciting fromTipper Gore one more Maybe even the government could assurance that the organization was not seeking print those sheets. Maybe it should legislative remedies. even be paid for by the government. This apparently exasperated Senator James Exon of Nebraska, who was clearly looking for a way The questioning of Zappa had a distinctly sharper to regulate popular music: tone than those of earlier witnesses. Washington's Senator Slade Gorton called Zappa "boorish" and I wonder, Mr. Chairman, if we are not "incredibly and insensitively insulting." He further talking about Federal regulation and observed that Zappa "could manage to give the First we are not talking about Federal Amendment of the Constitution of the United States legislation, what is the reason for a bad name if [he] felt that [Zappa] had the slightest these hearings in front of the understanding of it, which [he does] not." commerce committee? Can anyone The hostility continued with Senator Exon, answer that? ... Sometimes I the first to reflect the generation gap, leading to the wonder why these media events are following exchange: scheduled and for what possible reason if we are not being asked to Exon: I have heard of Glenn Miller do anything about it ... As one and Mitch Miller. Did you ever member of the Congress, I think that perform with them? we indulge in too many publicity events that are far beyond the scope CURB CENTER SPECOAL FEATURE Zappa: As a matter of fact, I took gun in his mouth in a simulation of music lessons in grade school from suicide? Mitch Miller's brother. Denver: I would not like to be the Exon: That is the first sign of hope one to tell a record company or an we've had in this hearing. artist what to do. I certainly think the picture you have described is Minutes later,Exon delivered the threat that had been deplorable and if I found that in my implicit all along. He said,"l simply want to say to you home, I would talk to my kids about that I suspect that unless the industry 'cleans up it and get rid of it. their act' - and I use that in quotes again - there is likely to be The next witness was Dee Snider, the led legislation. " singer of "Twisted Sister" a band whose "We're not John Denver, the next witness, received a Gonna Take It" made the PMRC's list of "Filthy 15" much warmer welcome. Denver said he was there rock records. Snider attempted to rebut some in part because his song "Rocky Mountain High" was accusations made by Tipper Gore in an opinion widely banned by radio stations because it was column published in Newsday, including her believed to be a drug-related song. He said that suggestion that his song "Under the Blade" misinterpretation of his music illustrates the inherent encouraged sadomasochism, rape, and bondage. problem in categorizing and rating songs. Denver was as diplomatic as Zappa " Zappa:As was aggressive, a matter of fact, I took music complimenting the lessons irigrade school from Mitch committee and the PMRC for airing the M/iller's b -other. issue. 1- . Senator Gore Ixon: _nat is the first sign of hope returned to the PMRC we've hac in this hearing. 9 theme that rock music promotes suicide in an exchange with Denver:

Gore: Let me come back to the question about suicide. Let us say you have a popular Snider countered that the song was in fact about rock star who has a lot of fans who surgery and had no sexual content. He also pointed sings a song that says suicide is the out that his video for "We're Not Gonna Take It" solution and appears in fan (shown earlier by Hawkins) was soon to be a part of magazines with a gun barrel pointed national United Way film reaching out to young in his mouth and promotes material people. Snider's criticism of Tipper Gore struck a that seems to glorify suicide. The nerve with the committee members, who chided United States has one of the highest him for "attacking Senator Gore's wife" rates of teen suicide of any county The remaining testimony in the hearing was in the world. The rate has gone up not as combative or as colorful. The senators heard 300 percent in the last decade among from Millie Waterman, the national PTA vice- young people, while it has remained president for legislative activity, Stanley Gortikov, constant among adults. Do you the president of the RIAA, and Dr. Joe Stuessy, a think it is a responsible act for a professor at the University of Texas, among others. record company to put out a song Gortikov said the RIAA's member companies (about glorifying suicide and for the artist 85 percent of the recordings sold in the United to promote the album by putting a Regunation Through Dntimidatdon

States) were prepared to meet the PMRC halfway. He Dr. Stuessy, a professor who believed that heavy metal explained: music of the 1980s represented "a quantum leap into extreme violence, substance abuse, sexual On future releases containing explicit promiscuity, and Satanism," echoed Senator Exon's lyrics, recoding companies individually comment: will include a packaging inscription that will state "Parental guidance-explicit Somehow we must send a message lyrics." This will highlight such content to the recording and radio for any concerned parent to exercise industry- enough is enough, you've gone too far. I hope that this "He warned that unless the recording committee will find a way to industry exercised more self-restraint, send a message there would be "a response from the to the industry: clean up your act elected officials of the people of this or we will do it country." 9 for you. That drumbeat continued throughout much of the day's testimony and was discretion, and that move by the repeated at the close of the hearing by SenatorTrible. recording companies directly He observed that "probably the most important addresses the core concern of the word in a democracy is 'no" that in a free society not PMRC. everything goes, and that unbridled freedom leads to chaos and to loss of freedom." He warned that The RIAA would not, however, encourage its unless the recording industry exercised more self- membership to participate in a ratings system. The restraint, there would be "a response from the abstract nature of lyrics made that impractical. elected officials of the people of this country." According to Gortikov:

No star panel can make endless laundry lists of no-nos that can handily The high-visibility hearing, the industry's apply to every future lyric written. labeling concession, and the largely positive Lyrics just do not come only in the mainstream press coverage for the congressional convenient form of four-letter words. They deal with interpretations, inquiry led to an agreement between the recording industry and the PMRC in 1989. Beginning in 1990, imagery, allusions and a master bank companies placed "Parental Advisory: Explicit of right/wrong or good/bad Content" stickers on CDs according to their own characterizations is likely to become internal criteria. the first step toward censorship, a The labeling scheme had some widespread concept which is abhorrent and fundamentally inconsistent with and unexpected consequences. Major retailers like Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Kmart have refused to stock creative freedom and American values. CDs with parental advisory labels. Many in the music industry responded by releasing "clean" versions of CDs with profanity deleted and by negotiating with retailers on album art. CURB CENTER SPECAL FEATURE Singer and songwriter Jill Sobule said that for the applying of the warning Wal-Mart initially refused to stock her"HappyTown" sticker-each company decides on CD in 1997 because of the cover image of a Prozac its own, with an internal system. capsule being broken over a house. According to Because there's no uniformity, the Sobule: effectiveness of the label gets diluted. Wal-Mart said that that was too much of a drug reference, although, The Rocky Mountain News also quoted you know, it's a legal drug and they hearings participant Dee Snider, who said he was sell it. But they also thought that horrified to hear one of his more profane the white sparkle looked like performances on a jukebox in a community center. cocaine. So they made me change He said, "I'm, like, mortified. Didn't they even see it. And it was a big thing for me to the 'Parental Advisory' sticker on that? No! Nobody decide on whether I'd change or even frickin' looks!," Snider told the newspaper. not, so I just made it test tubes Snider indicated that his concern during the instead. But it still bothers me to hearings was that self-censorship moves would not this day that I did that. prevent children from hearing the music: "And it has not-they are still getting the music. My other The targets of the 1985 hearing into music were concern was, the stores would use that as a way of heavy metal performers, but the disproportionate segregating certain records-and they are." impact of major retailers' refusal to carry stickered product has been on rap and hip-hop performers. Some argue that the purpose of the sticker system is to target unpopular ideas, not simply to warn parents. John Woods "4 It's a one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter of Rock Out system that simply says "Parental Censorship told the Progressive in 1999 Advisory." As far as we can tell, that the "real motive behind these there are no benchmarks for apply- advisories seems to be ing ot the warning sticker -each to get offensive music off the shelves, since company decides its own... seven legislatures are currently considering bills forbidding sales of stickered CDs to minors, and/or divestiture of state In a surprise move, recording giant BMG in funds from companies that manufacture offensive 2002 adopted an advisory label containing more music CDs and video." specifics, spelling out why the advisory was present. Thirteen years after its adoption, the That was welcome news to parents, but caused some stickering system remains controversial. Critics say consternation for the industry. As the Philadelphia it does not offer enough information to parents. In Inquirer reported: 2004, Dan Gerstein told the Rocky Mountain News Privately, some executives accuse BMG of breaking ranks and There's no content. It's a one-size- capitulating to reactionary forces. fits-all, cookie-cutter system that The company's new stickering simply says "Parental Advisory." As system moves the industry one step far as we can tell, there are no closer to what the labels fear most: standards for common benchmarks being pressured to adopt a ratings Regulation Through Dntimidation

system such as the Motion Picture made no recommendations, citing rapid Association of America's, which changes in the industry. prohibits access to material based on the customer's age. The same Senate subcommittee that investigated comic books focused on the content of television programs in June and October 1954. By 1955, Senator Kefauver 0993 was in charge of the committee, enjoying the visibility, and stacking the hearings against The experiences of the film, comic book the television industry. As Hoerrner wrote: and music industry illustrate the dynamics between government and media industries concerning Senator Kefauver opened the hearings controversial content, echoed in other fields and pledging objectivity and promising media. Videogames, radio, literature and television testimony from leading social scientists. He placed twenty letters in the record during his opening statement, however, from parents and organizations "4 Despite the political posturing and concerned about the hearings, Congress was reluc- television's role in children's lives. No tant to regulate the content of tele- letters were supportive of the vision. 9 industry. Despite the political posturing and the hearings, Congress was reluctant to have all been subject, at multiple government levels, regulate the content of television. However, the to efforts to "clean-up" their content. In recent years, hearings did set the stage for hearings in the Senate violence on television, an industry already regulated in 1964 under Senator Thomas Dodd and the highly in part by the federal government, has been the visible 1969 hearings chaired by Rhode Island Senator subject of congressional scrutiny. John Pastore. Dr. Hoerrner notes that most of the Congressional concern about the content efforts to address television violence in the 1990s of television shows began soon after the medium in fact had their roots in the 1950s. began to se mass acceptance. Dr. Keisha Hoerrner, Those early 1990s efforts to address currently an associate professor of communication television violence were largely led by Illinois Senator at Kennesaw State University, tracked the Paul Simon, whose campaign began one evening chronology of congressional hearings into television when he stumbled across a broadcast of "The Texas in the 1950s: Chainsaw Massacre" Simon recalled in a 2001 letter:

* Rep. E.C. Gathings (D-Ark) was the first I turned my television set on in a member of Congress to call for hearings motel in LaSalle County, Illinois, after into television violence, saying that "many attending a Democratic meeting and radio and television programs, as well as all of a sudden in front of me certain scurrilous books and comics, are someone was being sawed in half by corrupting the minds and morals of the a chainsaw, and even though I was American people." old enough to know that it was not real, it bothered me that night, and * The House Committee on Interstate and I thought, "What happens to a 10 Foreign Commerce's FCC Subcommittee year-old who watches something convened hearings in the fall of 1952, but like this?" CURB CENTER SPECIAL FEATURE Simon pushed the television industry to so that families can inform take a hard look at violent television programs and themselves as to the violent to develop some voluntary standards. When content. Second, all new television television industry leaders said that antitrust laws sets in the United States must prevented them from working together on such include a technology with the guidelines, Simon led passage of the 1990 Television Violence Act, which relaxed regulations and gave " In time, the V-chip would be a key networks and cable channels the compone nt in the strategy against freedom to explore televisioi i the issue of television violence, with mixed re- violence and come sults. 99 up with a plan. On May 21 and June 8, 1993, the capability of blocking Senate Judiciary Committee's Constitution out particular Subcommittee, chaired by Simon, held hearings on channels or programs. how the television industry was responding to As it turned out, this would be the most influential concerns about visual violence. Simon began the testimony of the hearing. In time, the V-chip would hearing by acknowledging progress by the be a key component in the strategy against television networks: violence, with mixed results. The three networks handed me Feeling the political heat, leaders of the standards in December that they nation's networks turned out in full force for the agreed upon in the area of violence first hearing.Among those testifying:Thomas Murphy, that will affect fall programming of chairman of Capital Cities/ABC; Howard Stringer, this coming year. And I've got to president of CBS; Warren Littlefield, president of say, as I look at the fall NBC; and George Vradenburg Ill, executive vice- programming.. .the programming president of Fox. For the most part, the executives' does look less violent. testimony had a "thank you for calling this to our In opening remarks reminiscent of those who spoke attention" tone. Littlefield said: at the film, comic book and music hearings years Chairman Simon, you have before, Ohio Senator Howard Metzenbaum raised challenged the entire entertainment the specter of legislation. He said,"TheTV industry industry to do a better job. NBC ought to recognize one thing and never forget it: has gotten the message. We are they just have franchises, and what Congress giveth, listening. We hear you. We have Congress can take away." been and will continue to take steps Early in the May hearing came the testimony to scrutinize with even greater of Massachusetts Rep. Edward Markey, who used intensity the depiction of violence his time to make the case for a new system that on television. would both rate television shows for violence and give parents the technology to block inappropriate ABC's Murphy was similarly conciliatory, but tossed content: the First Amendment into the mix: What I recommend is a two-step Our Constitution gives us important proposal: one, that we have a First Amendment rights, but with voluntary rating system, similar to those rights come equally important the rating system which has been responsibilities. We have tried hard used by the Motion Picture to prevent excessive violence on Association over the last 25 years, ABC, and we intend to try Regu~at on Through Dntimjdatdon harder... It is important that the The scientific data that linked government exercise restraint in television violence to the behavior interfering with the content of the of children are considerably programming. Our Founding stronger than the data that linked Fathers had the wisdom to pornography or obscene speech. recognize the importance of Dietz' testimony was revealing on two freedom of expression. We must counts. First, it essentially equated graphic violence guard this freedom zealously. with obscenity, defined in legal terms as work that That assertive stance on the First "depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, Amendment was in sharp contract to testimony just sexual conduct," appeals to prurient interests and "taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, weeks later by Leonard Enron, a research scientist political and professor of psychology at the University of or scientific value." Secondly, it asserted Michigan, and William Dietz of the American that there is an indisputable scientific connection Academy of Pediatrics. Enron and Dietz were there between television violence and harm to children. That view was pervasive throughout the to cast television violence as a public health issue, television but both strayed into constitutional law. Enron argued: hearings. "The scientific debate is over," Enron announced. Speaker after speaker embraced As soon as the suggestion of action his position. Even JackValenti, testifying in his role as comes up, the TV industry raises president of the MPAA, threw in the towel when he the specter of censorship, violation said,"l am not here to tell you that gratuitous violence of first amendment rights, and on television does not cause violence in the society, abrogation of the Constitution, and the evidence seems to be overwhelming, although many of you have referred to that. there are other studies that haven't made this causal For many years now, however, relationship so vivid." Western European countries have By not acknowledging other, less "vivid" had monitoring of films for violence studies, the committee effectively framed the debate by government agencies and have as "These shows are hurting our kids and something permitted the showing of excess has to be done." That didn't leave much wiggle-room violence, particularly during child for legislators with some misgivings about viewing hours, and I have never government regulation. heard complaints by citizens of The momentum was all in one direction, with those countries that their rights popular - and press - support for regulation. This have been violated. prompted a commentary by Patrick Maines in the November 1993 American Journalism Review, chiding It was an odd argument. Enron overlooked the America's journalists for jumping on the bandwagon: unique nature of the First Amendment, a bundling of five freedoms unrivalled and unduplicated The hearings on television violence anywhere in the world. Instead, he suggested that were among the most explicitly the U.S. would do well to emulate Western Europe. speech-repressive events ever (Earlier in the hearings, Senator Simon had observed conducted in the halls of Congress. that Germany, another Western European nation, Yet most writers and columnists had no censorship of movies or television.) saw little cause for alarm. Where Similarly, Dietz' testimony included the was the flood of outrage, in the assertion that violent television could be regulated form of editorials, feature stories, by government in the same way it limits access to op-ed pieces and syndicated pornography. Dietz pointed out that the Supreme columns from journalists worried Court has acknowledged the right to regulate that Congress' heavy-handed prurient material for children: coercion of the networks was an assault on the First Amendment? The Court has held that, where Reporters didn't seem to care. public safety is concerned, there exists a legitimate right of the State In fact, the article noted, the press seemed to limit speech, such as obscenity. to celebrate government intervention, with pro- CURB CENTER SECAL FEATURE hearing news articles and commentaries in program ratings system that would flag violent or Newsweek, USA Today and the New York Times. sexual programs. Today V-chips are standard Maines wrote: components of American television sets, but not a staple in American homes. The Wall Street Journal offered up The ratings-TV-Y7 for children who are former Federal Communications seven and olderTV- 14 for children ages 14 and older, Commission Chairman Newton FV for fantasy violence, V for violence, and D for Minow, who found a frighteningly suggestive dialogue-were intended to help parents, eloquent way of advocating speech but a 2001 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation limits: "It is time we used the First found that of the 40 percent of American families Amendment to protect and nurture our children, rather than as an excuse to ignore them."

In political terms, Senator Simon "An industry commitment to saw the potential for a runaway train. In monitor itself was not going August of 1993, at a television industry to satisfy critics. 9 summit held in the wake of the hearings, Simon called on the industry to establish a committee to monitor violence and report back to who owned a television set with a V-chip, only 17 the public on an annual basis.Then came his warning: percent used the system. I started in this effort as a Rep. Edward Markey, long an advocate of somewhat lonely voice in Congress, the V-chip, urged that the education of parents is but now I find many of my critical. Last year, after a national security alert called colleagues want to go much further for citizens to use duct tape to seal their homes, than is healthy for a free society ... Markey said: The surest solution is governmental The parents of the United States intervention, but it is also the most know more right now in two weeks dangerous. about how to duct tape the safe In the other hearings described here, room in their house and how much Congress stepped back after the film, comic book, water they should have than they and music industries instituted self-regulatory know about this V-chip in their TV programs. That was not the case with television. An set. industry commitment to monitor itself was not Ten years after those pivotal 1993 going to satisfy critics. hearings, there is a resurgence of interest in Perhaps driven by a conviction that government limits on television content, with a television programmers would never take the high number of legislators road, or perhaps simply intrigued by the possibility called for more stringent enforcement of of a technical solution, legislators turned to the V- standards by the Federal Communications Commission. chip as a way for parents to police on-screen violence. In the words of The Telecommunications Act of 1996 required every Kansas Senator Sam Brownback: television set sold in the United States to include As medical studies mount showing an electronic chip allowing allows parents to block a correlation between viewing programming based on an encoded rating. The law violence and violent behavior, also urged the television industry to develop a which is stronger than that of Regulation Through intimidation tobacco smoke and lung cancer, it legislative intent. They repeatedly note the First is clear we must do something Amendment, say they respect its principles, and about the amount of indecency acknowledge that legislation would run into that plagues our airwaves. constitutional limits. The battle is far from over. As for the notion of airing views for a better understanding of a problem, the hearings are rarely balanced in terms of "The core message is "If you evidence or testimony. If the 1985 hearing r act, w e into rock music was a don't clean up you neutral pursuit of the will..,," facts, why lead the testimony with a slideshow by Senator Paula Hawkins? If the 1993 television hearings were to be a balanced assessment, why was there no testimony from experts who believe there may not be a causative relationship between television programs For more than a century,government officials and societal violence? have sought ways to curb or regulate the content of The truth is that these hearings are entertainment media. These efforts, more often than generally intended to intimidate media industries not, were justified as a way to protect children from into modifying or labeling their content and to sexual, violent or otherwise inappropriate content. position congressional participants in a positive light Only the most cynical would dismiss these campaigns as protectors of children. Throughout these as being solely politically motivated. Most of these hearings, members of Congress make explicit efforts stem from sincere concern about the welfare threats of legislation. The core message is "If you of young people. don't clean up your act, we will." But that impulse to insulate the next generation from harm has also led to one-sided hearings, political posturing, scare tactics, and a negative impact on what adults see and hear. This survey of selected hearings and investigations over ent~e~ ueypecte cnsencs the past several decades is not all-inclusive, but is illustrative. The recurring patterns seen in the survey In each of the fields explored in this paper, suggest the following: legislators had only mixed success in pressuring entertainment media to police their content, but that pressure has often had different and unanticipated effects. In addition, efforts to limit content zie p m ryp ~ z n access to entertainment media by young people can have a significant impact on access by adults. Since 1968, movies have carried ratings to inform parents about possibly inappropriate content. Yet those labels have also led to the banning In theory, there are two reasons to hold a of the most adult and mature themes by shopping legislative hearing: first, to collect information malls and multiplexes. The NC-17 rating literally necessary to pursue legislation, or secondly, to means that the film cannot be seen by anyone provide an airing of views on a significant issue or under 18, but the stigma attached to it (and the problem. Yet as these examples illustrate, members earlier "X") means that most people 18 and over of Congress go to great lengths to disavow any CURB CENTER SPECDAL FEATURE will never see it in a theater or at a video store. Just violent and sexual content. The commitments months after the NC-17 rating was introduced, elicited by Senator Simon in 1993 have had only Blockbuster Entertainment announced that it modest long-term impact. would not carry NC-17 films. The decision came TheV-chip, envisioned as a valuable tool for after a campaign by Donald Wildmon's American parents, has largely foundered due to consumers Family Association. who are either uninformed or disinclined to use Another unexpected impact of the ratings the control. As Valenti of the MPAA told a Senate system has been the ongoing bartering between Commerce Committee hearing in 2000,"About 40 movie studios and the MPAA. Discussions about to 50 million television sets are equipped today with what may be shown onscreen go back to the Hays aV-chip. How do you say,'Mr and Mrs. Parent, damn office, but the system is now so ingrained that the it, use thatV-chip?' I don't know, Senator." MPAA becomes a partner in the creative process. The rock music hearings of 1985 were As Valenti told Entertainment Weekly in 1999, intended to embarrass the recording industry over "These negotiations go on all the time. A filmmaker the content of its hard rock and heavy metal records. has a right to know why he got a rating, and he's Almost twenty years later, heavy metal is a small got a right to say, I'm going to adjust my film to get a sub-genre in contemporary music, while the real less severe rating." impact of labeling has been on hip-hop and rap A filmmaker faces substantial pressure to music. The parental advisory sticker has been a modify his work in order to secure a rating that scarlet letter for many of these artists, forcing them will maximize the potential audience and meet the to change or edit their performances or face only economic goals of his studio. Among movies that mitered distribution. There's no violation of the were edited to avoid an NC- 17 rating are American FirstAmendment whenWal-Mart and Kmart refuse Pie, Basic Instinct, Natural Born Killers, Boogie to carry stickered CDs, but the repercussions range Nights, and Summer of Sam. from the consumer who can't find an artist's work Veteran screenwriter Robert Towne told to self-censorship in the studio. the International Herald Tribune that 30 years ago, Of course, the Internet has had a substantial writers sought an R-rating. He said, "We felt if we impact on the distribution of recorded music. A weren't doing an R-rated film, we weren't going to consumer in a small town looking for an uncensored reach the audience we wanted ... Now you're copy of the new Eminem CD can easily purchase absolutely under pressure to make PG-13 films." it online rather than buy the edited copy Wal-Mart. Congress certainly succeeded in its short- On the other hand, content labels have little meaning term goal of curbing the violent and sexual content for a generation of young people accustomed to of some comic books, but it didn't foresee the illegally downloading any music they want. resulting collapse of dozens of comic book companies. By adopting its comics code, the industry made comic books strictly a child's medium C [En.tet~m FII~n me d z drve ey b:I~) and lost the adult audience that purchased its more ecikmlc n e v¢ clu t graphic crime comics. It also meant the real potential of storytelling through graphics would not be realized until works likeArt Spiegelman's Pulitzer- the~i conenrt wkou piesire q winning Maus and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' outeideo Watchmen emerged in the 1990s. Congress has been less successful in curbing violence on television. While there have While legislators are often heavy-handed been critics of televised violence since the birth of and coercive in addressing media content, there is the industry, networks were for many decades also no question that entertainment media have sensitive to controversy and the potential impact given them ammunition. Films, television, comic on advertising dollars. That shifted, however, with books, and contemporary music have consistently the dramatic growth in cable channels in the 1990s. pushed content boundaries. When those shifts With networks losing viewers annually and cable produce profit, there is no incentive to rein things competitors fighting to carve out a niche, television in. Comic book publishers who were making profits creators have pushed boundaries in terms of both with suggestive comic books like Crimes By Reguladon Through Intdmidazdon Women were not going to change paths without and videogame companies routinely marketed pressure. Self-regulatory codes that were not products with parental advisories to children and inspired by the threat of legislation often fell to the young teens. Children as young as 10 and 12 years- wayside. old were included in focus groups for films and Much of the boundary-pushing is simply a reflection products with mature themes were promoted on of society. In his 1934 song "Anything Goes," Cole programs and in magazines for children, the FTC reported. Included in the FTC report was an excerpt from a marketing plan for a ntent labels video game noting that " On the other hand, cor the target was "males have little meaning for a generation 17-34 due to M rating (the true target is of young people accusto med to ille- males 12-34)." gally downloading any music they That kind of cynical and want. irresponsible marketing undercuts self-regulatory systems and fuels the call for external Porter poetically captured how each generation content controls. It was no surprise that the Senate shocks its parents: "In olden days a glimpse of Commerce Committee convened hearings into the stocking was looked on as something shocking. FTC report. It was also no surprise that the movie Now heaven knows, anything goes." industry responded with a "voluntary" I 2-step plan In a 1945 book on the Hays office, author to ensure more responsible marketing. Raymond Moley traced the origins of these culture clashes to the twenties: 0. /% e~ra, free rsp

An authentic revolt against conventional standards of conduct otei meda and taste, led, it must be said by the young began with the end of the WorldWar ...Established frontiers of propriety were crossed with a No newspaper would endorse government rush. It was the heyday of restrictions or a self-regulatory code for the speakeasies, joy riding, Freudianism, newspaper industry, but that has not discouraged corset-shedding, confession newspapers and broadcast media from playing magazines and lurid fiction and influential roles in the push for content restraint in drama. other media. From newspaper mogul William Randolph Heart's demand for film censorship in the Those "frontiers of propriety" are still being crossed. '30s, to more recent editorials supporting In a nation founded on freedom, and in which young government intervention into televised violence, the people have substantial disposable income, old news media have largely betrayed a willingness to mores will be challenged and new content regulate free speech other their own. embraced. The Modesto Bee, for example, campaigned Yet that evolution is separate and distinct for a ban on horror comic books, declaring "This is from an industry's calculated effort to target not a civil liberties issue. It does not involve the children with adult-oriented material to attain higher suppression of ideas." The campaign of the Parents ratings or revenue. A Federal Trade Commission Music Resource Center was largely applauded in report issued in 2000 found that the film, music, news media commentary. That news media support CURB CENTER SPECIAL FEATURE has reinforced the political benefits of campaigning cultural institutions. In their zeal to curb what they against content. It is easier to make threats of view as offensive entertainment, members of legislation when there's no price to be paid on the Congress can lose sight of the Constitution. editorial page. "I have no problem with holding hearings and putting on pressure" former Sen. Paul Simon said in a September 2003 interview. He continued, E. Heaings into what America, "But the problem with holding hearings and putting particutarly young America, sees, on pressure is that most of the members have no sensitivity on the First Amendment." As Simon said, hears, and reads will continue to that can lead to dangerous overreaching: shape the nation's cultural landscape. The only oath we take says that we After decades of legislative hearings and promise to support and defend the industry promises of self-regulation, congressional Constitution of the United States complaints about the content of youth media persist. against all enemies, foreign and In a 2003 article about"inertia" on legislation affecting domestic.The domestic enemies of media and communications, Cableworld Magazine the Constitution are often on the noted this exception: "There is one issue gaining floor of the House and the Senate. traction, at least in the Senate: sex and violence in TV, movies and music." Despite a V-chip and ratings systems, RFefferences members of Congress have stepped up efforts to GLENN C.ALTSCHULER,ALL SHOOK UP: How ROCK'N' ROLL CHANGED have the Federal Communications Commission AMERICA (2003). control "indecent" language and programming. As JackAnderson & Fred Blumenthal, The Kefauver Story (1956). long as new media challenge old mores and as long as legislators see a political benefit, there will be Are You a Red Dupe?, I CRIME SUSPENSTORIES 25, Oct.-Nov. 1954. hearings and the threat of legislation. Most troubling about these efforts is that, Associated Press, McCain wary of Gore Proposal to Sanction while they are inevitably couched in terms of Entertainment Industry, Sept. 18, 2000. protecting children, they often betray a contempt for the content. If there were no First Amendment Kris Axtman, Media Violence May Be Easier Tarred Than Regulated, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, Sept. 14, 2000. protections, legislators would surely be tempted to target the speech. MIKE BENTONTHE CoMIc BOOK INAMERICA (1989). Senator Exon's exchange with Frank Zappa about Mitch Miller was almost comical, but similar GREGORY D. BLACK, HOLLYWOOD CENSORED: MORALITY CODES, comments litter these hearings. Too often, older CATHOLICS AND THE MOVIES (1994). legislators have no grasp of young culture, viewing it Blockbuster Abandons All 'NC- 17' Videos After Wildmon as a trashy diversion rather than a legitimate form Group Letters, VIDEO STORE, Feb. I, 199 1. of free expression. Restrictions and codes that few would consider for museums or books are John Burnson, Marvel's break with the Comics CodeAuthority, somehow more palatable for youth-oriented media POP MATTERS, 2001. and pop culture. As members of Congress have long known, it is easier to target the art of those Can TV Be Cleansed Constitutionally? ST. Louis POST-DISPATCH, Nov. 27, 1993, at 14B. who are too young to go the ballot box.

In a nation in which the First Amendment I CONGRESS INVESTIGATES:A DOCUMENTED HISTORY 1792-1974 (Arthur sharply restricts government intervention into media M. Schlesinger, Jr. & Roger Bruns eds., 1975). content, legislative pressure has nonetheless had a profound effect on America's film, television, comic CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY, INC., GUIDE TO CONGRESS (5th ed. 1999). book, and recording industries. Even without laws being passed or regulations enacted, the government Edward F. Daniels, Pols Unimpressed by Studio Promises, MULTICHANNEL NEWS, Oct. 2,2000. has nonetheless had a substantial, and sometimes transformative, impact on these key American Regulation Through ntimidation

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