From: sderby@crick.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu (Stuart P. Derby)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
Subject: Re: Liberals DO oppose First Amendment rights
Date: 21 Nov 1992 18:38:37 GMT
Organization: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tx
NNTP-Posting-Host: crick.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu

In article <SWB.92Nov20161857@marvin.ae.utexas.edu> swb@marvin.ae.utexas.edu (Steve W Bova) writes:
>This brings up an issue which, surprisingly enough, received extremely
>little attention during the campaign.  The one organization which IMHO
>has done more damage to our First Amendment rights over the last 10
>years is the Parental Music Resource Center (PMRC).  This group was
>*founded* by Tipper Gore in (I believe) 1986.  Among other activities,
>the PMRC is responsible for the Parental Warning Labels which appear
>on albums/cd's that have been deemed obscene.

  Caveat: should read "deemed indecent or otherwise offensive".
Obscenity is a very narrow legal category (except in the rhetoric
of the religious right), and I think the only record ever found
obscene was the Too Live Crew album "As Nasty as they Want To Be",
and I think that was overturned on appeal anyway.

>The role the PMRC has played in wasting tax dollars and literally
>destroying so called "porn rock" bands is deplorable.  For example,
>the breakups of both Twisted Sister and the Dead Kennedys were
>precipitated by their legal battles with the PMRC.

  I don't know jack about Twisted Sister, I thought they died of ennui.
However, I think attributing the breakup of the DKs to the PMRC is mistaken.
At that time, there were lots of "family values" type groups around
(there still are), and the climate was such that some California
prosecutor thought he could make political points by appearing to be
on a moral crusade. So he busts Jello Biafra (the DKs main man),
Alternative Tentacles (the record company), the printer and others
for a POSTER (that's a picture, boys and girls, not a record), a copy
of an H.R. Geiger print of symmetrically arrayed butts and phalluses.
(As an aside to our history lesson, I've seen that poster and to this
day I think it's the flat out GROSSEST work of art I've ever seen,
in fact the only thing worse I`ve seen was the <real> week-old dead oppossum
crawling with maggots, but that poster was a close second.) The trial
was tedious and expensive, but the good guys (the DKs, et. al.) won in 
the end. The DKs broke up, Jello Biafra is recording solo projects,
and Alternative Tentacles continued distributing records, though
they were substantially hurt by the expense of it all.
  Getting back to blame, I can't point the finger at the PMRC for
the DKs troubles directly. While they undoubtedly contributed
to the climate, it's just as easy to blame the Meese Commision
on Pornography, Jesse Helms, the Rev. Donald Wildmon, etc. etc. ad nauseum.
Ultimately the blame has to rest with that fool of a prosecutor.

>                                                    You may remember the
>Senate Hearings on Rock and Roll in which Frank Zappa John Denver, and
>Dee Snyder testified.  These were called into session by none other
>than Al Gore when he was head of the Senate Commerce Committee!!
>
>So what, you say?  Less than 50 albums were stickered from 1986 to
>1990.  Now they are extremely common.  Moreover, there have recently
>been been cases in Florida and Texas where record store *owners* have
>been arrested for "distributing obscene materials to minors" because
>one of their clerks sold a stickered album to a minor.

  The only arrests I'm aware of (in Fl. and Tx.) were for sales of the
Two Live Crew album, which, I believe was not stickered, at least not
at that time. The RIAA stickering system is voluntary, and Skywalker
Records (now Luke Records, I believe), like many other independent
record companys, chose not to sticker.

>Because of all this controversy, many store owners will not even carry
>stickered or otherwise controversial albums. 
  
  Right. However, most of these are the big mall chains, like Goody's
and MusicTime, etc., in part because some suburban malls pressured
them not to. However, other chains, such as Sound Warehouse, continue
to carry stickered material. Of these, some have a casaully enforced
policy of not selling stickered albums to minors. Most of the "product"
that gets stickered (and excluded) is rap and heavy metal, while a lot of a
"alternative" stuff would have never made it to the malls even without
a sticker. I mean, how many times have you seen an album by Scraping
Foetus Off the Wheel in a mall? It doesn't matter whether you put
a sticker on it or not, it's not gonna make it in the door. 
 All in all, the biggest effect of stickers is in small towns that don't
have any independent stores.

>                                              For example, since
>Ice-T's "Cop Killer" was banned, a record store here in Austin refuses
>to carry Bob Marley or Eric Clapton albums featuring the song "I Shot
>the Sherrif."

  "Cop Killer" wasn't banned, Ice-T wimped out and had it removed from
the album. It was the artist's decision, albeit under pressure. I think
he should have stuck by his guns however (no pun intended).

>The power that Tipper Gore enjoyed as the wife of a senator from
>Tennessee bodes very ill indeed for free speech now that she is to be
>the wife of the Vice-President.

  While I'm as concerned as you about the need for eternal vigilance
in protecting our rights, I think the "rhetorical overstatements"
in your post do damage to "the cause" (tm). Since most Americans
believe in an abstract right of free speech and free press, and yet
also believe that "children of tender age" should be sheltered from
some of those resulting free expressions, there is a basic conflict
that provides ample fodder for political maneuvering. Of the
"restrictive" forces, the PMRC are pretty moderate IMHO, and
I'd much rather have the PMRC and Tipper involved in Senate
hearings convened by Al Gore than Eagle Forum and Phyllis Schafley
at hearings convened by Jesse Helms. While I'm unhappy with
the general "chilling effect" that the RIAA stickers have caused,
there's a pretty good argument that to be made that the PMRC
and stickering may have pre-empted something worse. As someone
who's been involved in "the culture war" for over 10 years now,
I'd change your "bodes very ill", to "is cause for mild concern", IMHO,
and I feel that overall we're a hell of a lot better off under
the Clinton/Gore administration than under Reagen/Bush/Quayle.
Also, I think most of the civil rights groups, social activists,
and media know it too, which is why one didn't hear much beyond
bio-blurbs about Tipper's relationship with the PMRC.

-Stu

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