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Chris Matthews’ Hardball College Tour that began last November finished successfully in the DU Cable Center last Tuesday. He and four prominent media figures agreed that sex was a mainstay in mainstream media.
In front of 350 people, Mike Barnicle, Terry Jeffrey, Christine O’Donnell and Richard Walter discussed sexuality in the media and its impact, perpetuated by lack of parental confidence in controlling their children’s media exposure.
A clip of Britney Spears’ video “I’m a Slave for You” exemplified the speakers’ different opinions.
While veteran print and broadcast journalist Mike Barnicle conceded he would not want his 12-year-old daughter to watch the video, the other panelists were able to justify and challenge his opinion.
“I don’t see anybody corrupted by this,” screen writer Richard Walter said. “We do live in a society where the media is raising the child.” Thus, children have already been exposed to sex.
Christine O’Donnell was one of “Hardball’s” more vocal speakers. Her Italian-Irish family has developed her character as one that “blends the flare of the King James Bible with Cosmopolitan,” according to National Review Magazine.
Her role as president and founder of the Generation X organization and the Saviour’s Alliance for Lifting the Truth has served her well as a weekly speaker on such channels as MTV, CNN and C-SPAN.
Terry Jeffrey, editor of Human Events, the national conservative weekly, said today’s youth has become immune to visual sexuality.
“When you become so desensitized, it’s what we accept,” he said.
Matthews showed a Miller commercial in which two women tore each other’s clothes off during an argument over whether Miller regular or Miller Light was better. Matthews also raised the question of rap’s popularity despite its undercurrent of violence.
A student said, “It’s part of the culture. It’s about having a hard mentality. It’s where we come from.”
O’Donnell referred to the reaction to stringent security post 9/11 when she justified the carelessness of today’s youth. “We throw everything away after we had our freedom taken away.”
To respond to the shift of media and parents’ reaction (or lack thereof), Matthews offered an explanation. “Times have changed so much. It takes work to engage moral values that don’t include manners and culture.”
Prior to the live telecasting, giveaways were distributed on the basis of a marked leaflet handed out at the entrance. At the end of the telecasting, sophomore Jason Landers was given the Hardball Hot Spot seat.
He had 90 seconds to answer as many questions as possible. He had to answer at least six in order to make it to the opportunity to compete among the top 10 leading scores for a chance to win $10,000 for himself and $5,000 for the university at the university. Landers failed to meet the minimum six.
