Two definitions of freedom

Artists and children need to learn moral self-government | Gene Edward Veith

The mavens of the entertainment industry-the television barons, movie producers, rockers and rappers, cable executives, and Internet tycoons-are sounding like advocates for "family values." In opposing any measures to make them clean up their acts, they piously invoke parental responsibility. Not the government, not laws, not artists, but parents and only parents should have the say-so in what their children are exposed to in the media.

This is certainly true, but it is also a convenient cop-out. If parents did,

collectively, exercise their responsibility as the entertainment industry recommends, a good number of the industry's products would go unwatched, unheard, and unbought. The producers must be pretty sure that a widespread parental crackdown is not likely to happen.