Lieberman Versus Hollywood

[Khephra]

Lieberman Versus Hollywood

By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 8, 2003; Page A01


First in a series of occasional articles



Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman remembers where he was (at home in Connecticut, sitting on the couch) and when (the fall of 1993) the notion first struck him: Television can be toxic, especially to young children. With his stepson, then 17, and daughter, then 5, beside him, Lieberman sat through an episode of the bawdy sitcom "Married . . . with Children" that night with a growing sense of discomfort.

At first he was surprised and embarrassed. Then he was angry. It was, he says, "the moment that got me going."

In the months and years that followed, Lieberman would become the Senate's, and arguably Washington's, leading pop-culture crusader. In news conferences and speeches, he repeatedly denounced the entertainment industry for selling "debasement," "garbage" and "cultural poison" to children. His targets quickly stretched beyond Al Bundy to the broader seep of junk media: Geraldo Rivera and "trash" TV talk shows, violent video games such as "Mortal Kombat," misogynistic "gangsta" rap music, sexually frank prime-time TV programs. "It's time," he once declared, "for a revolt of the revolted."

Today, the attack on the entertainment industry resounds in Lieberman's run for the Democratic presidential nomination. It helped define him politically and personally, as he often says in Democratic debates and other forums, as the candidate who "took on Hollywood." It enables him, he says in an interview, to make a connection to a larger theme: values. "I have a particular sense of mission about that," says Lieberman, 61. "I don't want to leave anyone with the impression that the GOP or President Bush has a monopoly on values or a sense of right or wrong. They don't."

more..............

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44110-2003Dec7.html

[Gore1FL]

1. Oh goodie....

a candidate that wants to legislate morality becaus eht eamerican people and culture are too stupid and depraved to make their own choices.

[JailBush]

2. Screw the economy - let's take on "Married With Children"! N/T

[truthisfreedom]

3. we just don't need knee-jerk politicians in the Democratic Party.

joe, please go away.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. Why doesn't he just switch

his party affiliation? He doesn't represent the majority of democrats.

Holy Joe is becoming the country's court jester. What a twit. Anyway, let him go ahead with his bs, he'll certainly piss off any under 30 voters, who might have even considered him.

[Khephra]

5. kick

[54anickel]

6. I think his time would be better spent on the FCC with their expanded

percentage of media ownership (set up for our propaganda machine) and the loosening of the use of vulgar language on TV during prime time (if he wants to get on the "moral high ground).
Don't get me wrong, I cuss like a sailor, but I don't do it around kids. I have heard that the rules have been changing. I read the FCC decision on it, I'll try to find the link. I know it had something to do with "fuck" and the Golden Globe Awards and a South Park movie.

[iam]

7. Right Issue

wrong target. It's the entertainment INDUSTRY. And the gun INDUSTRY. And the drug INDUSTRY. All of these probems have something in common, they're all CAPITALISTS. Capitalism dictates PROFIT over values. Anyting can and will be sold to generate profits without a thought over what it means. Selling our tech secrets to the Chinese for example. People spying, not for VALUES but for PROFIT. It's a cultural sickness that elevates a business over the people it's suposed to serve. The free market does not exist for the market, it exists for HUMAN BEINGS! Thart will win the vote, not just attacking Hollywood, Hollywood is a town and has no values.

[Philostopher]

8. I think it's really a shame that Joe Lieberman

Couldn't afford a TV with a channel dial or an "on/off" switch. I've been in pretty bad shape economically, at times, over the years -- but I'd swear every single television I've ever owned, no matter how cheap and cheesy, had a channel dial or a remote control and an on/off switch.

[Voltaire99]

9. Lieberman's last gasp

With Gore backing Dean, we'll soon see an exit stage *right* from the campaign by the miserable little conservative from CT.

The next thing to do is organize to replace him in the Senate. With a little Hollywood money, we could even get a Democrat elected to his seat. :-)

[BenFranklinUSA]

10. Lieberman won't exit...

...until he finishes poorly in the primaries, which BTW, he won't!

[The Zanti Regent]

11. Diebold rigging the machines?

because that is the ONLY way LOONEYMAN can win!

[beyurslf]

12. I think the question is

Will JL leave after the NH priamry defeat (4th at best) or will he hang in to get his butt kicked on Feb 3rd too?

[regnaD kciN]

13. I fear Holy Joe...

...will keep fighting on no matter what, all the way to convention, accusing whoever is the front-runner of being an "extreme liberal," splitting the party, and giving lots of campaign fodder to the GOP. Then, if he successfully weakens our candidate and we lose in November, he'll be the first to lead the DLC-organized purge of progressives, on the grounds that "I told you a liberal can't win."

:puke: