Monkey See, Monkey Do?

There is a big push by 32 attorneys general to have movie makers in Tinsel Town place public service ads on their DVDs. These ads would be about the dangers of smoking and targeted at the youths in America. These ads would be on any movie that featured actors smoking. This is the great idea of the attorney general of Maryland, my home state. I have had indirect dealings with his office with regard to legal issues. I wish he would have spent more time with my needs than with the Hollywood crowd. I think he is ineffective and only concerns himself with items that will benefit him or a political ally. Little guys like me, especially conservative guys like me, have no chance of equal justice under the law. In any event here is what AG Curran is basing his crusade on:

Curran noted that the attorneys general first raised their concerns with the Motion Picture Assn. of America in 2003 about “mounting scientific proof that young people who watch smoking in movies are more likely to begin smoking.” The latest evidence came from a Dartmouth study, funded by the National Cancer Institute and released earlier this month, which researchers said establishes a “strong association” between exposure to movie smoking and tobacco use by adolescents.

There is this idea that kids watching the actors smoking will make them smoke. Why is it that when someone suggests that when kids see violence in movies it makes them violent no one puts public service announcements on those films? Why is it the AG is more concerned about a problem that, while deadly and addictive, is not an immediate threat. Smokers only kill themselves (despite the babble about second hand smoke). Smokers do not die instantly when they light up. It is a slow death over a number of years yet the AG thinks we should target this and ignore the violence which if emulated kills quickly and often in volume.

I do not know why Curran chose tobacco as his target though it has been a favorite of his. He was involved in that big tobacco lawsuit that netted the states more in settlement money than the tobacco companies make in profit. I think that was a bogus lawsuit. They sued to get back Medicare money that had been spent on the elderly who died of tobacco related illnesses. They say that big tobacco is responsible for the illnesses without admitting their own culpability. The states are just as guilty as tobacco companies because the states sell the product and they profit from it. They make money in taxes and in the lawsuit. It is win, win for them despite the obvious disregard for their own responsibility in the sicknesses they are suing for. That is the typical hypocritical liberal establishment. I am wondering when they are going to sue Florida for all the Medicare money spent around the country for the advertisements that influence people to come to the Sunshine State and enjoy the Sun. All those folks who get skin cancer from the exposures and then go home to other states are just as much of a burden to Medicare. Florida should not be ignored.

I would just like to know why this guy did not pick movie violence to target. Obviously he has a thing for the tobacco industry but if he really cared about kids then he would go after the violence in movies.

Read it here.

Related story here

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One Response to “Monkey See, Monkey Do?”

  1. Case timeline

    Here is how the events unfolded in the investigation involving Attorney General Mike Cox and Southfi