Written by David Morgan

 

Fortunately no one seems to be taking him very seriously. According to , Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat of West Virginia, made a handful of vague threats on Tuesday saying, "To be blunt, the big media companies have placed a greater emphasis on their corporate short-term profits than on the long-term health and well-being of our children." He also said, "I fear that graphic violent programming has become so pervasive and has been shown to be so harmful, we are left with no choice but to have the government step in."

 

Other lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans alike were skeptical about the validity and potential effectiveness of such actions. Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg pointed to the success of The Sopranos to illustrate that the public has an appetite for violent shows, and that government intervention without popular support would never work (a la Prohibition, though probably considerably different). 

 

Rockefeller also compiled some sort of video mix-tape that depicted acts of rape and other acts of violence, for the committee to see. Some of the other senators asked him not to show it, but he did anyway.