LABJ FORUM – Flash Point

The split-second flash of flesh during the Super Bowl was the latest in a series of events pushing the limits of propriety in the mass media. Despite the shouts of outrage, however, none of the parties involved seem to have come out any the worse for wear. Indeed, the intertwined relationships of networks, cable news outlets, record companies and print media assure winners in some fashion all the way around. So the Business Journal asks:

Is big media fostering a degradation of the culture, and what can be done about it?

Robert Gustafson

Director, Entertainment Industry Institute

California State University, Northridge

If Viacom’s relationships with advertisers are damaged even temporarily, that’s the issue. If it gives the appearance of CBS and the Viacom family not being professional and in control of their productions, it makes advertisers nervous. It’s neither the media determining values, nor reacting in response to changing values. The media is seeking to attract audiences that want something different and edgy. The difficult thing is to maintain viewers; getting people to watch something once is easy.

Howard Fullman

Medical Director, Kaiser Permanente

West Los Angeles

The media does have a responsibility to bring out the best in us as a society, foster things that are constructive and promote high ideals. There’s been a race to the bottom lately in the media. We highlight the bad and the destructive; we’re narcissistic as a society. But that all needs to be balanced by our cherished belief in free speech and creativity, and there’s a fine line in that tradition. It’s not so much about whether nudity or bad language in the media is right, but it relates to the kind of themes that are dominating in media today.

Cole Hartman

Vice President, West Coast Director

Carat Affiliates

I look at everything as a free market, and more often than not art imitates life. TV is reacting to society, not the opposite. But my five-year-old niece was watching, and it lays down the premise that it’s OK in the minds of our kids. I don’t think Justin Timberlake would want his daughter to see that, if he would ever have one.

Regis Brown

Vice President, International Distribution

Mike Young Productions Inc.

The influence of corporate media on talent and the pressure that comes with it has resulted in a serious degradation of artistic talent. Artists have just become puppets trying to perform with a greater shock value for some higher-ups in the organization who believe, falsely I think, that this is what you need to get the public’s attention. The taste for shock is being created, but it’s not a conspiracy. People are going, “Well, they’re doing it, so we gotta do it.”

Brian Dyak

President, Chief Executive

Entertainment Industries Council Inc.

I don’t put the blame on the corporate media. It’s what happened with the artists involved. It was a fluke incidence of grandstanding. I doubt very much that CBS executives concocted this.