WASHINGTON — A frustrated House publicly slapped the entertainment industry Thursday, branding it "irresponsible" and calling on Hollywood to do "everything in its power" to eliminate gratuitous violence in products that appeal to children.
But lawmakers turned back a more concrete proposal designed to put cigarette-style warning labels on violent music, movies and video games, as Hollywood dodged a congressional bullet for the second straight day.
Stymied in its efforts to legislate an end to excessive entertainment violence, the House was reduced to officially fuming about Hollywood's impact on America's youth with nothing more concrete than rhetorical bite.
"No industry does more to glorify gun violence than some elements of the motion picture industry," read the amendment by Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), which passed, 355 to 68, Thursday as part of the juvenile justice crime bill. The overall bill later passed by a 287-139 vote.
"Children who listen to explicit music lyrics, play video 'killing' games or go to violent action movies get further brainwashed into thinking that violence is socially acceptable and without consequence," she said.
Thursday's action culminated two days of contentious debate over the effect of entertainment violence on children. It saw the House dive headlong into a culture war blaming school violence, such as the Colorado school massacre in April, on all manner of popular influence, from movies to the Internet to the theories of Charles Darwin.
But it focused most on the role of Hollywood. In a meandering emotional debate, lawmakers waved copies of assault-style video games, railed at movie posters and pined for the days when, as Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) recalled with nostalgia, Roy Rogers "was the biggest star in the world."
Although many of the anti-Hollywood proposals amounted to little more than grandstanding, the House's action was a rare admonishment of a powerful industry and a likely reflection of public opinion that could be hard for the industry to ignore.
"These folks don't pass a resolution just because of something they ate for breakfast. It reflects something deeper, and Hollywood should take note," said Stephen Hess, a public policy expert at the centrist Brookings Institution.
The House approved, on a vote of 248 to 180, a measure by Rep. Robert B. Aderholt (R-Ala.) that would grant states the power to determine whether the Ten Commandments could be posted on government property and in schools--a measure that, if it were to become law, likely would face a constitutional challenge.
