so... what does Al say about the PMRC?

[NoodleBoy]

just wondering. Tipper being involved with them helped prop up support for greens in 2000, it seems.

[Cheswick2.0]

1. oooooohhhhh the PMRC boogy man

There is nothing wrong with labling cd's so parents know what they are buying for the kids without having to listen to it all.
If people went Green because of that good ridance to them.
It's a non issue.

[NoodleBoy]

2. I'm not trying to pick a fight, just asking to clarify-- is Al in vocal

support of them?

[Mabus]

3. I've looked for it

that is, I've googled "al gore" and PMRC and so far all the hits pertain to Tipper's involvement, not Al's. I also haven't seen any quotes attributed to him about it. If I do, I'll share them with you. So, in answer to your question I don't find evidence of Al being vocal about it.

[Cheswick2.0]

6. Non issue

[AlGore-08.com]

4. The PMRC is a straw man - - does it even exist any more?

The PMRC flap distorts Tipper Gore's position, which was asking for warning labels so parents could decide if they wanted their kids listening to/buying material, and called that "censorship".

The labeling was no different than the movie ratings system (which was in place at the time), and the TV ratings system which is in place now. I see PSAs all the time on cable channels praising the TV ratings system as this great tool for parents - - PSA created by the same folks who tried to stop it from being enacted.

Have you ever seen any liberal advocacy group complaining that having a movie ratings system is censorship? You don't, because the film industry knows that they can't get rid of system without a huge public backlash. The reason that the entertainment industry opposed the warning system (and started the "censorship" smear) is because they do intentionally market violent and sexual material to kids. The stickers had the potential of reducing their sales: and only a sliver of the money from those sales goes the artists involved. To buy into the idea that the labels are "censorship" and punish Al Gore for his wife's involvement twenty years ago is helping the same corporations who have turned their news divisions into GOP spin point festivals. Way to go, progressives! Fight the powers that fight the powers that be!

But to get back to the question... the question shouldn't be about the PMRC, because, like I said, I don't think they exist any more, and if they do, the Gores are not members and haven't been for years. The question should be "how does Al Gore feel about parental warning systems like the record labels and TV ratings", the answer is he supports them (he was instrumental in the creation of the V-chip) but opposes censorship.

I agree with an earlier poster, however - - anybody who thinks that Tipper's involvement with the PMRC twenty years ago is a better indicator of Gore's commitment to progressive values than his opposition to the Iraq war, the Patriot Act and his outing of the Smirk Admin's corporate corruption and systematic distortions of the truth for political gain is definitely in the "unpursuadable" column.

[Mabus]

5. There was an interesting response to this on another thread too

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1493888&mesg_id=1495736&page=

from the response called "Rebuttal of attack on Gore." where the Admiral gives a point by point rebuttal. The following snip concerns the PMRC question and makes some good points.


the boss (reply #25)>- He then backed Tipper on the PMRC nonsense to prove that he was still a "values" guy.

Admiral Loinpresser's response: This is an interesting point for me because my own view on this has changed since it happened. Being a good knee-jerk liberal in the 80s, I sided with my man Zappa on this one. I bought into his rhetoric about censorship, etc. Since then, I’ve had kids and pop music has become a lot more misogynistic, violent and anti-social. Now I think rating labels for music are a good thing because they gives consumers (read parents) a heads up that a CD might contain objectionable material. We do the same thing on movies and TV shows. As a parent I think that’s a good thing. Tipper never advocated censorship. She gave a recent interview on this issue on NPR and I include the cite. Tipper 1, Jello Biafra 0.

http://www.npr.org/dmg/dmg.php?prgCode=ATC&showDate=11-...

[Jamastiene]

7. This is easy to understand if you just look to Fox News.

I know that sounds crazy, but if you'll bear with me, I can explain what I mean by that. I, too, was one of the teenagers in the '80's that was terrified that I would grow up and not have any music I could enjoy. The real deal with the PMRC, it turns out, was that they wanted to rate the music. For teens like me, at the time, it meant I didn't have to search so hard to find the most offensive stuff to listen to for rebellion purposes. That's not censorship. It's just a system put in place to make sure, say, that your children aren't listening to something like Rahowa, without you being aware of it.

That's the liberal way to deal with "offensive" material. Now, flash forward to now and Fox News. The conservative way is to say nothing yet censor the hell out of everything, especially the news, which, let's face it, controls what many people in our country think, through sound bytes. Hence, Fox News, the best example of out and out right wing propoganda since the nazis' Hitler Youth campaign. They propogate lies and incite hatred. They show some of the most violent video footage, including the 9/11 jumpers over and over again. Yet, they have no rating and sure didn't warn anyone before showing that. Not to mention this little flub up where they blurred out a woman's breasts, but lookie what they missed at the other end.
http://homepage.mac.com/mjsmitho/FoxNewsPornSlip/FoxOpps.html

There are no ratings whatsoever on the news and Fox claims to be the morally superior news channel, yet they showed that. The most reactionary people of them all when it comes to "offensive" material are by far the conservatives. And what conservative parent would keep their kid from watching Fox News? Food for thought there.

That's just my way of looking at it.