EPEric's Blog

Lawmakers, music industry executives and rappers disagreed Tuesday over who was to blame for sexist and degrading language in hip-hop music but united in opposing government censorship as a solution.  "If by some stroke of the pen hip-hop was silenced, the issues would still be present in our communities," rapper and recordproducer David Banner, whose real name is Levell Crump, said inprepared statements to a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing. "Drugs, violence and the criminal element were around long before hip-hop existed."  At the hearing, music videos showing scantily clad women were played; music executives in dark suits testified on the uses of the "B," H" and "N" words, and black civil rights leaders talked of corporate exploitation.  "We have allowed greedy corporate executives -- especially thosein the entertainment industry -- to lead many of our young people to believe that it is OK to entertain themselves by destroying the culture of our people," E. Faye Williams, chair of the National Congress of Black Women, said in prepared remarks.  "From Imus to Industry: The business of stereotypes and degrading images" was the title of the hearing, referring to former radio host Don Imus, who lost his job after making derogatory comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team. The Imus incident has sparked debate within the music industry about black artists using offensive, misogynist and violent language.  Former gangsta rapper Master P, whose real name is Percy Miller, told the panel he is now committed to producing clean lyrics. In the past, seeing his relatives and friends shot and killed, "I just made the music that I feel, not realizing I'm affecting kids for tomorrow." But he said he found he didn't want his own children to listen to his music. "So if I can do anything today to change this, I'm going to take a stand and do that."  "This hearing is not anti-hip-hop. I am a fan of hip-hop," said subcommittee chairman Bobby Rush, D-Ill., who gained national prominence in the 1960s as the founder of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers. But he said there was a need "to address the issue of violence, hate and degradation that has reduced too many of our youngsters to automatons."  Record company executives defended the parental guidance labels and edited versions they said keep the more controversial material away from children and stressed that uniform standards or censorship won't work. In the '50s people were deeply offended by Elvis Presley, and a decade later many were scandalized by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, said Edgar Bronfman Jr., chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group. "We have a responsibility to speak authentically to our viewers," said Philippe Dauman, president & CEO of Viacom Inc., which owns such cable networks as MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and BET. He said his company takes an active role in editing obscenities out of music videos and excising gang symbols or portrayals of violence, but "we also believe that it is not our role to censor the creative expression of artists." Alfred Liggins III, chief executive officer of Radio One, Inc., one of the largest media companies that primarily serves African-Americans, said the company reviews the contents of songs before broadcasting them and takes care to comply with Federal Communications Commission guidelines. But "Radio One is also not in charge of creating content, or in the business of censorship or determining what is in good or bad taste." The hearing was reminiscent of, although tamer than, a similar event in 1985. At the earlier hearing, lawmakers where exposed to Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher" and Twisted Sister's "We're Not Going to Take It," and the late rocker Frank Zappa hurled insults at Tipper Gore, wife of then-Sen. Al Gore, and Susan Baker, wife of then Treasury Secretary James Baker, who were urging the recording industry to voluntarily police itself on song lyrics.

Say what you want about Newt Gingrich, but in a speech in Raleigh today, he did say one thing I absolutely agree with.  He spoke to the conservative John Locke Foundation.

Gingrich said "We have shrunk our political process to this pathetic dance in

which people spend an entire year raising money in order to offer

nonanswers, so they can memorize what their consultants and focus

groups said would work,"

Our news managers meet for lunch on Thursdays.  How we will cover the race was one of our topics this last meeting.  It's going to be tough in North Carolina.  With so many states moving their primaries up, North Carolina does not matter much to the candidates right now.  We won't see too many visits here as opposed to Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina.. and now places like Illinois where the primary date has changed.  Major candidates rarely make themselves available for local television interviews of any substance.  Campaign culture is the TV and radio commercials, the $$$$ plate dinner to pay for the TV and radio commercials and the airport fly-by interview where a candidate steps off the plane and talks to all the media at once in well rehearsed soundbites.  Granted, the commerical revenue is very good for our company, I just wish the candidates would take some inspiration from the old days.  I grew up in Central Illinois where a Lincoln Douglas debate landmark sits alongside a field about a mile from my parents house.  If you need a history lesson Google those debates.  I sure wish I could have been a journalist to cover politics done in that style.

The headline from AP today.

All charges against three Duke lacrosse

players accused of sexual assault have been dropped.

North Carolina's attorney general made the announcement today,

saying the athletes were innocent victims of a "tragic rush to

accuse" by an over-reaching prosecutor. He says his own probe

concluded that no attack took place.

State Attorney General Roy Cooper says there were a number of

points in the case "where caution would have served justice better

than bravado."

Give us your thoughts from the accuser to the now cleared players, to Nifong, to the Attorney General.  How will this case be remembered years from now?