Sense Of Proportion

You really have to care about an issue to buy a whole page in a major newspaper. Any group that does it obviously believes they've got something important to say. So let's look at a few of the full-page ads out there this week and figure out what matters to people.

In the Los Angeles Times (it appeared earlier in the New York Times) was NION's ad. NION stands for Not In Our Name. They reject almost everything about the Bush administration, but particularly have a bee in their bonnet regarding the war on terror. Fine, when history is written, and we recall that America tried to liberate tens of millions from brutal dictatorship, and fought to bring democracy to a whole region, we'll note that all the intellectuals and celebrities of NION opposed it.

In USA Today, an umbrella of "values" groups, tired of trying to convince people pornography is wrong, simply want to take away the choice. (They'd probably love the old National Lampoon issue "Pornography: Threat or Menace?".) They campaign for "corporate responsibility," i.e., corporations deciding for us what we can read and see.

Their latest target is Movie Gallery, a chain trying to buy out Hollywood Video, thus "bringing hard-core pornography to your neighborhood." How? Well, their shops apparently feature backrooms with "titles that can't be printed in this space." Is that true? Will USA Today really prevent them from printing Sideways And Other Ways, The Pole Her Express, Hitchcock, Meet The Knockers--actually, that sounds cleaner than the original--and the like? (Incidentally, a Movie Gallery spokesperson says they're not planning to sell X-rated merchandise in Hollywood Video outlets.)

They're also bothered that Movie Gallery's regular shelves include R and NC-17 rated videos, otherwise known as "movies." "It's not uncommon to find these videos in full view of children" (italics theirs). You know, like the way titles and posters are in full view of the same children at movie theatres.

Also in the Los Angeles Times was an ad by a group trying to save Star Trek. With its latest incarnation, Enterprise, canceled, there won't be any fresh Trek on TV for the first time in quite a while.

When I saw this ad I thought finally, some people with a sense of proportion.