Jewish World Review Dec. 21, 2000 / 24 Kislev, 5761
Michelle Malkin
Smacking down free speech
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
THIS CHRISTMAS EVE, children across the heartland will go to bed with visions of chokeholds and body slams pounding in their heads.
They will dream of unwrapping such jolly delights as "WWF No Mercy" and "WWF Smackdown 2."
Santa, watch your back.
WWF, of course, stands for the Worldwide Wrestling Federation. "No Mercy" and "Smackdown 2" are two of the hottest selling
video software games in the country marketed to kids. Players can smash opponents onto tables, bash their heads into boiler room
pipes, and enter the arena to bury each other in "casket matches." An estimated 1.2 million children under age 12 have been
exposed to such real-life stunts on "WWF Smackdown!" events, according to the Los Angeles-based Parents Television Council.
Parents who publicly criticize the WWF and its products should beware. The WWF seems to relish roughhousing its opponents in
court almost as much as its wrestlers enjoy brutalizing each other in the ring.
Take the ranting lawsuit filed last month against the Parents Television Council in U.S. District Court in New York. WWF lawyers,
who did not return my calls, accuse the group, founded by conservative activist Brent Bozell, of "unlawful threats, intimidation,
coercion, deception and flat-out lies." The wrestling empire is demanding millions of dollars in relief and damages to protect their
status as "the most popular family entertainment programming in the world" and preserve their "rights of artistic expression and free
speech."
Just what did Bozell's organization do to set the unitard-clad artisans of WWF off? The parents dared to exercise their
constitutionally protected rights to protest the the WWF's foul-mouthed programming and ask advertisers to boycott the UPN
network's family-hour airing of "Smackdown!" According to the parents' group, they persuaded advertisers to spurn the WWF not
through "threats," but by disseminating transcripts and videotapes of the wrestling conglomerate's family-hour programming.
Here's one typical example, cited by the Parents Television Council, of the "artistic expressions" uttered on a Thanksgiving
broadcast of Smackdown by the wrestler known as The Rock: He threatened an opponent by promising to take a turkey drumstick,
"bend you over, turn it sideways and stick it straight up your candy ---."
As Bozell notes, the WWF's product "speaks for itself." Gone are the days of Gorgeous George, Andre the Giant, and Hulk Hogan.
Today's professional wrestlers peddle no-holds-barred degradation and denigration. Former wrestler-turned-Christian ministry leader
Ted DiBiase, who once managed WWF thug Stone Cold Steve Austin, now forbids his own sons from watching the WWF. "It has
taken the low road," DiBiase told Christianity Today magazine. "There are no more heroes."
"Lighten up!" WWF Chairman Vince McMahon, wrote in a bitter letter to Bozell. "Where is your sense of humor? We sell fun!"
That's true, to some extent, but few are laughing in Florida, Texas and Washington state, where the influence of professional
wrestling on young viewers has been linked by news outlets including Court TV to the deaths of children aged 6, 3, and 18 months.
The 6-year-old was thrown repeatedly into an iron stairway railing; the 3-year-old died after his brother performed a "running
clothesline" move across his throat; the 18-month-old was body-slammed on a couch until his cousin got bored and returned to
watching TV before finally noticing blood foaming from the unconscious baby's nose.
The Parents Television Council doesn't advocate censorship of the WWF's violent trash. It advocates personal responsibility and
corporate accountability for the industry's impact on children. It supports consumer empowerment and the use of the free market --
of ideas and enterprise -- to warn families and fight back. As a result of the council's boycott campaign, the groups says that several
major corporations, including AT&T Corp., Domino's, Burger King, Coca-Cola, candy maker Mars Inc., MCI Worldcom, the U.S.
Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard, pulled their advertising from the WWF Smackdown series. Many more, according to the
council -- including Allstate, Campbell's Soup, Kellogg's, and Wendy's -- provided written or verbal notification to the parents' group
that they do not and will not sponsor the show.
The only thing Bozell's group is guilty of is success. That is why the bullies of the WWF, with their backs against the ropes, have
resorted to a litigious smackdown of their critics' free
speech.
JWR contributor Michelle Malkin can be reached by clicking here.
12/18/00: Brace yourselves for Floridation
12/14/00: Blame enviros for electric mess
12/11/00: UNICEF's deadly mission
12/06/00: The Amish vs. the feds
12/04/00: Downey and the Drug War
11/29/00: Let the sun shine on the Supremes
11/22/00: Peace prize for a murderer?
11/20/00: Baby Boom parents are asleep on the job
11/15/00: Fog horns of the Fourth Estate
11/10/00: Who cares about election fraud now?
11/08/00: Ms. Houston, you have a problem
11/03/00: The Million Mom Murmur
11/01/00: GOP revolutionaries head for the hills
10/27/00: My impeachment referendum
10/25/00: Gore’s Good Daddy Gambit
10/23/00: Tribulations of a dubious 'tribe'
10/20/00: Pharmaceutical butchers of Beijing
10/16/00: How the West was seized
10/12/00: Fight the anti-pesticide pests
10/10/00: Moochers at the multiplex
10/05/00: Pay for your own day care
10/02/00: Not every senior demands a handout
09/27/00: Racial hype at the Olympics
09/25/00: Watch the other Washington
09/20/00: Textbook case of media arrogance
09/18/00: New York: Land of medical pork
09/13/00: Voices from the womb
09/11/00: No cure for generational pain
09/08/00: Notes on a West Coast wilding
09/06/00: Race matters at Washington Post
09/01/00: For those who labor 24/7
08/28/00: There's something about Rudy
08/25/00: A conservative case against Napster
08/22/00: Death Row Marv mocks justice
08/18/00: The party of Maxine Waters
08/14/00: "Make-A-Wish" shoots down dreams
08/10/00: Who will stop Bill Lann Lee?
08/07/00: Emily Dickinson's lesson for rude drivers
08/03/00: Leave the slogans behind
07/31/00: Hey, GM: Build cars, not quotas
07/28/00: Stop milking The Juice
07/24/00: Silencing Jeff Jacoby
07/21/00: Score another one for TV execs who want to keep us brain-dead
07/17/00: Can somebody say McStupid?
07/12/00: Beware of Ugly Building Syndrome
07/10/00: The miracle of a lead pencil
07/07/00: Partying on the people’s dime
06/29/00: When "Indians" exploit their own
06/23/00: Kids in a public school daze
06/21/00: Fed up with Fannie and Freddie
06/19/00: D.C.'s gag order for Christians
06/16/00: Dads, daughters, and PETA's spoilsports
06/13/00: Tune out Eminem's pitiful "poetry"
06/07/00: "Pained" Dem leader Torricelli deserves to feel some; Why hasn't he?
06/05/00: Tom Green's hidden health-care lesson
06/01/00: Farming out the pork
05/30/00: The perils of medical quackery
05/26/00: Awarding medals by race is a disgrace
05/22/00: Have Simon & Schuster execs lost their minds!?
05/17/00: Sports plebes vs. plutocrats
05/15/00: Whitewashing Red China's record
05/12/00: Our mothers' hands
05/08/00: Focus on the real Waco
05/05/00: An Internet victim's sad story
05/03/00: Phony pooh-bahs of journalism
05/01/00: Zoo tragedy triggers dumb reaction
04/24/00: Ecoterrorists on the loose
04/19/00: Beware of Elian's psychobabblers
04/17/00: The truth about Erin Brockovich
04/13/00: In defense of an armed citizenry
04/10/00: Playing hardball with taxpayers
04/06/00: Read W.'s lips: More new spending
04/04/00: The liberal media-in-training
03/31/00: Sticking it to the children
03/28/00: Declaring war on HOV lanes
03/22/00: Clinton and the Echo Boomers
03/17/00: Is Bush a Liddy Dole Republican?
03/13/00: Katie and the politics of disease
03/10/00: Maria H, Granny D, and the media Z's
03/07/00: Bubba Van Winkle wakes up
03/03/00: Double standard for day traders?
02/28/00: Sluts and nuts --- and our daughters
02/24/00: Zoning out religious freedom
02/15/00: The Baby Brain Boondoggle
02/10/00: Buddhist temple untouchables
02/08/00: CDC: Caught Devouring Cash
02/04/00: Hillary's poisoned poster child
02/01/00: Corporate welfare on ice
01/28/00: The silly sound of silence
01/26/00: The Old Media meltdown
01/20/00: The pied pipers of KidCare
01/18/00: Our imperious judiciary
01/14/00: Tune out Columbine chorus
01/12/00: Dying to be an American
01/10/00: Time for smokers' revolt?
12/30/99: Reading, writing, PlayStation?
12/27/99: Fight money-grubbing mallrats
12/23/99: Christmas for Cornilous Pixley
12/20/99: Who will help the Hmong?
12/16/99: Shame on corn-fed politicians
12/13/99: EPA vs. the American Dream
12/09/99: Look behind the Pokemon curtain
12/06/99: Amateur hour in Seattle
11/30/99: Stop the Ritalin racketeers
11/23/99: Welfare for a sports fatcat
11/19/99: Jeb Bush's political ploy of the week
11/16/99: Ben & Jerry serve up junk science
11/12/99: A monumental waste of our veterans' resources
11/10/99: Tax-and-spend schizophrenia
11/05/99: Spooky Guy Haunts the Capital
11/02/99: Mourning the loss of the last Liberty Tree
10/27/99: AOL goes AWOL on parents
10/22/99: The persecution of Harry Potter
10/20/99: Don't doctor the law
10/14/99: The trouble with kids today
10/12/99: Pro-animal, pro-abortion, anti-speech?
10/07/99: Beltway press corps needs more skunks
09/30/99: ESPN overlooks athlete of faith, grace, and guts
09/27/99: Personal freedom going up in smoke
09/15/99: Farewell, "Miss" America
09/10/99: Will George W. work for a color-blind America?
09/03/99: Feminization of gun debate drowns out sober analysis
08/27/99: America is abundant land of equal-opportunity insult
08/10/99: Protect the next generation from diversity do-goodism
08/04/99: Sweepstakes vs. state lottery: double standards on gambling
07/21/99: "True-life tales from the Thin Red Line"
(or "Honor those who sacrificed their lives for peace")
07/21/99: Reading, 'Riting, and Raunchiness?
07/14/99: Journalists' group-think is not unity
06/30/99: July Fourth programming for the Springer generation
06/25/99: Speechless in Seattle
06/15/99: Making a biblical argument against federal death taxes
© 2000, Creators Syndicate
|