Obama to Hollywood: Don't glorify guns

[ucrdem]

Source: The Hill

November 26, 2013, 04:58 pm | By Amie Parnes

President Obama urged a room of Hollywood executives and employees on Tuesday to "think long and hard" about the messages gun violence sends in movies.

"We gotta make sure that we're not glorifying it," Obama told the crowd at DreamWorks studio, adding that movie executives had a "big responsibility" to the viewing public. "Because the stories you tell shape our children's outlook and their lives."

Obama, who has sought to push tougher gun measures after a string of mass shootings across the country, briefly touched upon meetings Vice President Biden had with Hollywood executives earlier this year. "Those conversations need to continue," he said. "The stories we tell matter," he continued.

On the final day of a three-day trip to the West Coast, the president trumpeted the uptick of the economy, touting the entertainment industry as "one of America's economic engines."

"Entertainment is one of the bright spots of the economy," he said.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/191523-obama-to-hollywood-think-about-gun-violence

---

KTLA video segment at link . . . hope the article date is right as I didn't know he was in L.A. today . . . anyway good luck with the message PBO, can't hurt to try!

[ucrdem]

1. KTLA video link:

http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=91690&sitesection=thehilldotcom&VID=25393448

[ucrdem]

2. Barack Obama: "It is good to be in L.A.!"

#t=14
President Obama Speaks on the Economy

"Uh, I would like to work here," Obama said to laughs. "I have asked Jeffrey."

[abelenkpe]

4. Yeah those artists protesting outside would like to work there again as well

Too bad their jobs were sent overseas where foriegn governments subsidize pay up to 35 percent. But hey, the economy is on the upswing.

[freshwest]

12. Thanks for the cool video, ucrdem.

[ucrdem]

13. Thanks freshwest!

So glad to see him enjoying himself out here after that shootout in Santa Monica last summer.



And that wretched Snowden business that blew up while he was sweating out a summit with Xi in Palm Springs.



But he sailed through it all and now he's earned his turkey and pie.

Mmm, pie!

Have a great TG freshwest!

[PoliticAverse]

3. Good luck with that message indeed. n/t

[onehandle]

5. America to Washington DC: Regulate Guns As Directed By The Second Amendment. nt

[ucrdem]

6. Well, Joe gave it the ol' college try

and about all it accomplished was to run up guns 'n' ammo $ale$ to astronomical levels. Just like I knew and probably he knew it would.

[jmowreader]

7. Worse...

come to North Idaho, go to any gun shop and ask for the "Joe Biden Special."

[ucrdem]

8. Oh this has gotta be good.

Hit me.

[Electric Monk]

9. After a little googling, I think the answer is: a double barreled shotgun

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/11/19/man-claims-joe-biden-defense-after-firing-shotgun-into-the-air/

[ucrdem]

10. I can't picture Jill firing two blasts from a double barreled shotgun.

I wonder if Joe's heart was really in this one.


ETA: from what I heard and saw it was, and he had the country behind him, and it's criminal that it didn't pass. But it didn't come as a surprise.

[jmowreader]

15. Most places sell you an automatic shotgun

Although Joe did specify a double barrel shotgun, any gun that can fire quickly is good.

[former9thward]

21. Biden also advised firing a shotgun through the door.

Which is illegal. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/02/28/biden-advises-shooting-shotgun-through-door

[tblue]

11. Just a thought...

I agree Hollywood should be much more deliberate about the message it conveys re: gun violence. There is way too much violence in movies and it is too often glorified, IMHO. So yes, by all means, Mr. President, please push for some restraint. You tell 'em.

But it's the Righties' thing to blame Hollywood, and video games, (and not the intractable accessibility of firearms) for America's gun violence. Because make-believe guns are so much worse than real ones.

They should be high-fiving the POTUS for this, but they'll howl about it instead--even if PBO is now simply saying exactly what they've been saying forever. They are knee jerks, and you can count on that.

Just a thought.

[ucrdem]

14. Hadn't thought of that.

Obama's message is pretty low key and focused though. You can barely detect it in the video. But apparently it's something he's serious about, if he sent Biden out earlier to read the riot act, per the article.

Here's the distinction I'd make: the RW noise machine uses Hollywood as a rhetorical whipping boy, and consequently really doesn't have much effect, and wouldn't want to. The stuff PBO is pointing to is all stuff the RW loves, namely military conquest and cruelty.

And it really was getting out of hand. I don't watch a lot of TV but the stuff pouring out of tinsel town during Bush-Cheney was repulsive. It's gotten better but for a while everything was GI Joe on steroids, with the intended effect of militarizing the world, basically. So a different direction is a good thing and if PBO wants to put his hand to the rudder I'm all for it.

[bemildred]

16. Yeah, if I never see another "actor" waving weapons around like magic wands, it will be too soon.

Think of all the unpleasant surprises the audience will get when they try that in real life.

[Doctor_J]

25. yes, he is again gathering his conservative cred by bashing Hollywood

I wish he would try to woo liberals once in a while.

[L0oniX]

17. Don't glorify the military!

[mwrguy]

26. AMEN!

[Orsino]

18. Obama to Hollywood: don't make money.

It's a good message, but studios are not going to revamp formulaic action/thriller movies in favor of anything less profitable, not any more than they are going to give up the objectivization of women or the erasure of minorities.

[warrant46]

22. Don't Glorify the drones

[dawn frenzy adams]

19. We need to have a talk.

Unfortunately Progressives have allowed themselves to be defined by the Right. Hollywood is not, nor has it ever been, a bastion of liberalism. It perpetuates racist stereotypes-and gives Americans a distorted view of its history and the world. It promotes the status quo. It wasn't until the 1980's that they finally made a movie that didn't wholeheartedly glorify the South. Over and over, it has deified the gun. It tells Americans, and their children, this is how you solve a dispute.

No debate is permitted over Hollywood's bad influence over the American psyche. I'm not talking about that nonsense the Right throws out. It has had a major dumbing down effect on the American intellect. We are shallow, superficial, intolerant people because of it.


Please check out, George Galloway: The CIA Role in Hollywood

Also please watch Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinity

There is a Tough Guise 2. You can watch a previewed full version of both documentaries at:

http://www.mediaed.org/

[ucrdem]

20. hey thanks, these are awesome

I had no idea so much was known about mil-intel collusion with Hollywood, but yeah, it's a strange and sordid tale. My understanding is that when the Production Code lost its roar in the early 50s the intel guys basically took over. In fact as I recall it was the military issue that sidelined Joe Breen, who was taken to task for being more concerned with excising profanity from WWII movies than propagating a patriotic message. Funny how that works isn't it. Anyway PBO can't unaware of all this which is one reason I have to give him props for bucking the tide, publicly too.

[NCarolinawoman]

23. I wish they would stop glorifying explosions, noise, and balls of fire.

Sick of it.

[Tom Ripley]

24. +1000 At least a human being is pulling a trigger on those guns

[Eleanors38]

28. Minor correction: Ball of fire behind actors running/jumping towards camera.

An enduring visual cliche.

[Cha]

27. I heard that.. Thanks for the

highlighted piece, ucr.

Good point by the President.. it's not as if it hasn't gone beyond gun-crazy in this country thanks to the nra and their billion$. I bet they were all ginned up over PBO's message of "not glorifying guns" guns guns, btw.

[ucrdem]

35. Thanks, Cha!

Yep it appears he's using the ol' bully pulpit to get his filmland friends to help him change the culture, since Congress is D.O.A. as far as helping him change the law, or anything else they're paid to do.

p.s. Hope you had a great Thanksgivaka!

[Cha]

36. Any avenue possible.. that's where the President will be..

Since as you so accurately described it.. the republicon "congress is DOA"!

Yes, I did have a great Thanksgivuakka.. I was talking to my sister in Cape Cod yesterday and she told me about Chanuka and Thanksgiving merging on the same day and will not be that way again for a very long time.

I hope yours was awesome, too, ucr!

[hughee99]

29. They shouldn't glorify violence... the way violence is SUPPOSED to occur

is that a few people in some room somewhere decide that the information they have is "good enough" to go on, then maybe they have a meeting with a judge that no one is ever allowed to know about, then they send out a drone and kill a bunch of people, and then when the news reports it, they're MAYBE given a name of some group's "#2" and told that they are all "suspected militants", so it's okay.

[JackRiddler]

30. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Talk about bloody fucking likely.

Or really, the standard going through the motions by politicians.

I'm sure the Hollywood folk will take a long, hard think about this!

[ucrdem]

34. They thought long and hard enough to fork over $2.1 million

if you really want to be cynical about it . . .

[JackRiddler]

39. Well then everyone's a winner!

[yurbud]

31. ...said the president who shoots random Muslims with remote control missiles

[yurbud]

32. the Obama action movie: Some superbuff action star shakes some frail homeless guy awake

and tells the bewildered guy he has to wash and wax the action star's car free. The guy says he's tired and has to get back to begging pretty soon.

The action star says that's too bad, and walks away.

A few minutes later, a Hellfire missile from a drone flies under the homeless guys cardboard and explodes his guts over a couple of square blocks.

Then the action star comes back and sees another homeless guy covered in blood, staring in disbelief at the crater where his friend used to be.

The action star says, "Are YOU gonna wash and wax my car for free?"

And so it goes.

It definitely lacks the suspense of a super or even equal villain, but that's how we roll.

[oberliner]

33. Reminds me of Al and Tipper Gore's "warning labels" for certain types of music

Not sure how I feel about this one.

[Ash_F]

37. How about bombs? /nt

[ellenrr]

38. don't glorify guns - glorify drones

[Revanchist]

40. Yeah, it's Hollywood's fault

We are calling for an inquiry into the connection between these acts of mass murder and the use of psychotropic drugs. Although the media have cited family members and acquaintances saying Adam Lanza was taking prescription drugs to treat “a neurological-development disorder”, we do not know if he was on psychotropic drugs. But we do know that James Holmes, the Colorado batman shooter, had taken 100 milligrams of Vicodin immediately before he shot up the movie theatre (1).
And we do know that:

Christopher Pittman was on antidepressants when he killed his grandparents (2).
Eric Harris, one of the gunmen in the Columbine school shooting, was taking Luvox and Dylan Klebold, his partner, had taken Zoloft and Paxil (3).
Doug Williams, who killed five and wounded nine of his fellow Lockheed Martin employees, was on Zoloft and Celexa (4).
Michael McDermott was on three antidepressants when he fired off 37 rounds and killed seven of his fellow employees in the Massachusetts Wakefield massacre (5).
Kip Kinkel was on Prozac when he killed his parents and then killed 2 children and wounded 25 at a nearby school (6).
In fourteen recent school shoots, the acts were committed by persons taking or withdrawing from psychiatric drugs, resulting in over 100 wounded and 58 killed (7).
In other school shootings, information about the shooter’s prescription drug use and other medical history were kept from public records (7).

http://www.psychintegrity.org/isepp_statement_on_the_connection_between_psychotropic_drugs_and_mass_murder.php

There can't be any other reason for all these mass shootings