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Article: Who us? Stop blaming kids and TV.(for crime and substance abuse)
- Article from:
- The Progressive
- Article date:
- October 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 The Progressive, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Children have never been very good at listening to their elders," James Baldwin wrote in Nobody Knows My Name. "But they have never failed to imitate them." This basic truth has all but disappeared as the public increasingly treats teenagers as a robot-like population under sway of an exploitative media. White House officials lecture film, music, Internet, fashion, and pop-culture moguls and accuse them of programming kids to smoke, drink, shoot up, have sex, and kill.
So do conservatives, led by William Bennett and Dan Quayle. Professional organizations are also into media-bashing. In its famous report on youth risks, the Carnegie Corporation devoted a full ...