I wrote a couple of letters today to some company presidents. I don't remember if I've done that before but an article I read in the newspaper got me all riled up. The article was written by Brodie Fenlon and describes some of the disturbing content which is being packaged and sold by "respectable" outlets such as HMV and Music World.
The DVDs in question include titles like "Ghetto Fights" and "Wildest Street Brawls." These include brutal real-life gang violence. One example has a man dragged from his parked car and beaten repeatedly until he was unconscious. There are worse examples. Is it any wonder that our youth are increasingly becoming de-sensitized to violence. (And let's not get started on violent Video Games).
What particularly irks me is the companies that have decided to profit from this carnage and add to the pollution flowing through the TVs of our nation. Apparently Universal Canada distributes this junk through its partner Navarre Canada. Navarre's video product development manager Francine Winkley blames Ontario's film classification agency for not rating it as adult. She says that "it's not up to us to be the censor board." She also claimed that the videos are "absolutely not worse than anything you see on TV."
Here's my question - is there no such thing as being a good corporate citizen; looking out for the public good? When did we stop caring about anything other than whether or not we'll get arrested? What about the effect that this stuff has on our society? I'm not holding my breath waiting for a response from these guys, but it did feel better to ask. By the way, Music World said they'd received no complaints. Why don't we change that? Find the nearest Music World and ask them politely why they are profiting off some innocent person getting beaten up on video. It seems to me to be a matter of time before "snuff films" and child pornography hit the mainstream. God help our children.
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CFRB radio had a program on this topic yesterday and they spoke of the videos you mentioned - "The Bumb Wars." One caller who had seen them said that he was the most shocked at the message at the end of the video. It requested people to create their own videos and send them in. If they were selected there would be financial rewards.
What, in fact, they were doing was encouraging youth to beat up helpless drunks for entertainment purposes. When the producer of these videos was challenged to justify them he called them harmless skits.
You have to wonder if the two teens arrested today for pouring lighter fluid on a 13 year old girl and setting her os fire were fans of series like these. they did have a video camera on hand as well.
Interestingly enough, B.C. has rated them "Adult," which requires special licensing. Due to the costs of the license, they are not sold there. let's hope our own censors gain some common sense soon.
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