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Republicans who talk about the real-life consequences of pop-culture vulgarity still scream at the suggestion of any link between talk-show belligerence and Oklahoma City. Americans aren't so sure. In the TIME poll, 52% of those questioned said they believed that strong antigovernment rhetoric inspires people to violence. And a lot of Americans are already suspicious of any attempt to use the culture issue as a way to evade discussion of everything else that contributes to the fraying of American life, from threadbare schools to the flood of guns. In the TIME poll, 55% of those questioned agreed that if candidates want to improve the nation's moral climate, there are more important issues to concentrate on than sex and violence in the entertainment industry.
With those weak points in mind, Bill Clinton took a swipe at Dole last week at a town meeting in Billings, Montana. Without mentioning the Senator by name, Clinton observed pointedly that "there are some public officials in our country who are only too happy to criticize the culture of violence being promoted by the media but are stone-cold silent when these other folks are talking and making violence seem O.K.''
For Democrats, criticizing Hollywood amounts to biting the hand that feeds them. Media-company executives and major stars contributed heavily to Clinton's 1992 campaign and to Democratic coffers generally in last year's congressional elections. Even so, the Democrats appreciate the potential power of the cultural-pollution issue and hope to position themselves prominently before Republicans get a lock on it.
They can point out, for example, that Tipper Gore was among the first crusaders against obscene rock lyrics. First Lady Hillary Clinton has made frequent, if muted, denunciations of media vulgarity, and now seems to be turning up the volume, most recently in her appearance on Oprah. And sandwiched into Bill Clinton's long State of the Union message in January was a plea to Hollywood "to assess the impact of your work and to understand the damage that comes from the incessant, repetitive, mindless violence and irresponsible conduct that permeates our media all the time.''
In an interview with TIME last week, Vice President Gore stepped up the rhetoric. "Some of the decisions made by executives in the entertainment industry, the advertising industry, the creative community, have been obscene and atrocious.'' It was fine with him, Gore added, to try to shame corporate executives into reining in their product, though he rejected the notion that "shaming alone is a magic solution.''