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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 23, 1999)
A2322 v. 105:no.141 tllll es' he Battalion Opinion Page 5 • Wednesday, June 23, 1999 rybody s to do lavealcj next y n why at it ndyk, it. MVP, a chail did it, Wii| lamps» the Pit ed in; win tin 1 York Is Let’s get leady to... ne griev ing family may finally ac complish what USA Network standards and practices executives Ryan GARCIA haven’t succeeded at doing in the past year - restraint on the professional wrestling industry. This much needed check on an industry that knows no limits comes after the family of Owen Hart an nounced, this month, that they had filed a lawsuit against the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and 12 other de fendants, including WWF president Vince McMahon. The litigants believe the WWF is responsible for the death of Hart, a 34-year-old professional wrestler who died May 23 after falling from a catwalk at Kansas City’s Kemper Arena during a pay- per-view wrestling program. Hart’s family believes he was pressured into performing the high-risk stunt as part of a ratings war taking place between the WWF and its competitor. World Championship Wrestling. The lawsuit centers around the belief that the device Hart was using was inadequate for its function of hold ing Hart. According to CBS News, the release of the safe ty cable required only six pounds of pressure. Questions remain over whether Hart was properly trained to per form the stunt in the rush to grab ratings. The Hart family hopes the lawsuit will bring change to an industry they believe is more concerned with rat ings than the safety of its performers. With its Jerry Springer-like anything goes attitude, the WWF has, un- a fortunately, shown a steady progression towards possible tragedies such as the one the Hart family has suffered. As one of the fastest-growing entertainment industries, the WWF somehow manages to evade any broadcast standards by broadcasting live every Monday night. It’s hard to believe WWF writers don’t know everything that’s going to take place from Stone Cold Steve Austin’s choreographed hand gestures to the routine profanity that is a part of every wrestlers’ image. What started as a minor expletive every now and then, has turned into wrestlers demanding that their opponents “suck it” and worshiping the occult along with its cus tomary sacrifices. Staged kidnappings resulting in mock crucifixions in the name of a “dark power” are more com monplace now than actual wrestling matches. Although a large portion of WWF viewers are children with easy accessibility to a popular cable channel, the WWF doesn’t hesitate to schedule evening gown matches in which two top-heavy women rip each other’s clothes off, exposing more plastic surgery than one might think possible on the human body. If it’s not a wrestler with his porn-star theme spouting euphemisms for his sexual prowess before each match, it’s the implied seduction and fellatio of one wrestler by a transvestite - and that’s only the first hour. In a recent Spin article, McMahon offers no apologies for the current state of the WWF. In this corner, pro wrestling has gone toofar... He quite candidly admits that everything is done in the name of ratings and carries himself with an arrogance he feels is rightly deserved for resuscitating a once-dead form of entertainment. McMahon is a shrewd businessman, and if going to church suddenly became the trend, he would have his wrestlers toting bibles and reciting the gospel. Lest fans begin to get the wrong idea about McMahon and the WWF, they should remember that the WWF’s ex cuse for continuing the program after Hart plummeted 78 feet to his death was that the fans deserved to get their money’s worth. The WWF’s show-must-go-on attitude continued the next night when, instead of canceling that night’s pro gram, the WWF dressed up a two-hour lackluster pro gram as a tribute to the late Owen Hart. Nevertheless, the WWF consistently receives the high est ratings on Monday nights and sells out arenas wher ever it travels. It is a veritable juggernaut of sex, corruption and vul garity. In its wake lies the death of a professional wrestler that could not have come at a worse time for the WWF. Ryan Garcia is a senior journalism major. ince McMahon, presi dent of the World Wrestling Federation, has made more enemies than friends in his many years in the wrestling promotion business. The over-the-top antics and suppos edly lewd behavior Jeff WEBB of his wrestlers are the target of media watchdogs, but McMahon’s WWF is far from being the most offensive program ming on television. Each time “The Godfather,” a wrestler whose persona is a pimp, appears for a ti tle belt shot with his scantily-clad “hos,” or “Badass” Billy Gunn bears his thong-cov ered buttocks on the cable USA network, an hour-long episode of realistic violence and bare-bottomed Dennis Franz can be viewed on a local ABC affiliate. Nevertheless, the fight against McMa hon’s wrestling empire has resumed in the wake of the recent accidental death of wrestler Owen Hart. Hart’s entrance before a pay-per- view match last month ended abruptly when his harness became detached from the cable that was lowering him. After an investigation, it seemed Hart mistakenly un hooked the cable when the cape from his Blue Blazer costume became entangled. Hart completed the stunt successfully in rehearsal earlier in the day, and the same stunt has been pulled off flawlessly by Sting, a wrestler in Ted Turner’s sani tized rival World Championship Wrestling league, dur ing live cable broadcasts in the past. The Hart tragedy was not an example of wrestling going too far. It was simply an unfortunate accident. The family of Owen Hart filed a lawsuit against the WWF, in addition to Kempner Arena and the city of Kansas City, for, among other things, negligence. However, this should not be the catalyst for an at tack on wrestling or the WWF. McMahon is forced to defend the WWF in every interview, but his reasoning falls on deaf ears. At 8 p.m. Monday nights, WWF Raw hits the air waves on the USA Network with its brand of faux vio lence and racy subplots. During the Monday night broadcast. Raw directly competes with WCW Nitro on TNT for viewership,. Undeniably, Raw contains more bikini-clad females, more obscene gestures and phrases. Accordingly, Raw beats WCW in the ratings worse than wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin would flatten Bill Gates. With an almost two-point lead over Nitro, McMa hon’s plea that the more risque programming is a prod uct of public desire is justified by the numbers his show produces. However, at this late hour, children under 10 need not apply for viewing. McMahon markets action figures toward children and has provided a television alterna tive as well. The USA Network broadcasts two alternative pro grams for its younger viewers, shows without repeated obscenities, but the same entertaining grappling. Livewire, a WWF news program, runs at 9 a.m. Sat urday, and WWF Superstars, running 9 a.m. on Sun days, is an hour-long show filled with wrestling from ... and in this corner, pro wrestling has served its public the prior Monday night performance. With this milder programming, McMahon proves he is listening to the concerns of parents and the media. However, it should not be up to the wrestling pro moter to be the great moral organ of television. Parents should be proactive in editing what their children watch if television programming affects their kids’ behavior. However, if children (or college students, for that matter) wish to imitate what they see on television, it might not be a negative experience. After all, a young kid named Mick Foley would never have taken a leap off his roof in a backyard wrestling match if it hadn’t been for imitating what he saw on television. Then the WWF’s Mankind never would have seen action as a brief Championship title holder. So the next time Raw is on USA and The Godfather beckons you to take a ride on the “Ho Train,” accept it for what it is worth — McMahon, a marketing genius, pushing the limits of what television will allow him to do to entertain the masses. Jeff Webb is a senior journalism major. ritics of Jar Jar should back off EDITORIAL Mark PASSWATERS /ant everyone to know that I am of fended. I am offended by George Lu las and his creation, Star Wars, [. m sutMsode 1: The Phantom Menace. ; j ne " The character of Senator — and lat- r j vea c'r, Emperor — Palapatine is a white g^ulale, and stereotypes us as evil manip- j 0 f Initiators with the sole intention of taking he ji>v4r the galaxy. Wait, it gets even worse. The few ,j ty 0 vhite males not intent on doing evil — . L leads, such as the Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jin and Obi-Wan ^ (emobi, are apparently not smart enough to think on their 11 j awn. They must take their orders from a green, grammati- 1 ally-challenged muppet. How offensive. Blopefully, this sounds more than a little absurd. Regret- ably, it is the same line of thought of some people who lave gone to see The Phantom Menace and have come out -jurying racism. ILw 1 gThe horrible creature responsible for most of this out- ERflSagp? J ar J ar Binks, the computer generated Gugan with the veird speech patterns. ORE j Apparently, being from “a galaxy far, far away” does not l45'fli>revent Jar Jar from displaying stereotypes offensive to ^Bcan-Americans. Michael Dyson, professor of African-American studies at -'T'polumbia University, is one of the loudest complainers. Sf^Pyfeon claims “there were some stereotypical elements to j^his character that suggested black culture,” saying his ;nt e: .'lujmsiness and speech patterns were blatantly black. jdisOyson goes so far as to say Jar Jar’s “meesa” can be taken Daxasds 1‘massa.” — It must be very slow up in New York in the summer. Has Jyson considered that Jar Jar Binks also sounds like the hort guy in “Laverne and Shirley,” and that the clumsiest .dit ndividual in American history was probably former Presi- lent Gerald R. Ford—both of whom are white? Closer ex- imi nation of Jar Jar’s speech would also show that -^Hnieesa” sounds much closer to “Leeza” than “massa.” Per- labs Jenny Jones and Ricki Lake should scream discrimina- ion as well. M Lucasfilm released a statement to confront this “Phan- om Menace,” trying to politely show there are more holes ti this argument than in the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. ‘Star Wars is a fantasy movie set in a galaxy far, far away. To dissect this movie as if it has some direct reference to the world [is] absurd,” the statement said. Ahmed Best, the actor who played the voice for Jar Jar, concurred, “1 think it’s really stupid for anyone to put their own prejudices [on] a complete fantasy movie.” In spite of this, the outrage continues. Dyson claims Jar Jar’s Gungan tribe shows stereotypes of an African tribe. Perhaps — but aren’t there more than a few similarities that can also be drawn to Native American and perhaps even Scottish tribes? If everyone was as touchy as Dyson, imagine what would have happened if the Gungans had said the TYade Federation could not take their freedom, like in Braveheartl Goodness, what if they had mooned the battle droids? Half of Glasgow would be looking for George Lucas. This is not to say Dyson or African-American activists are the only ones complaining. Bruce Gottleib, a writer for the on-line magazine “Slate,” said Watto, Anakin Skywalk- er’s owner in the new movie, was a Jew. “Even in a galaxy far, far away,” Gottlieb thunders, “the Jews are apparently behind the slave trade.” Scary what sit ting in front of a computer can do to your sense of logic. What makes Gottlieb think Watto is a Jew? Because he has a hooked nose? That is grasping at a very small straw. In a move that should be hailed as eminently logical, the Jewish Anti-Defamation League said there was no basis for claiming that Watto was anti-Semetic. Dyson and Gottleib should adjust their priorities. With the recent firebombings of synagogues in California and al legations of prejudice in New York City’s police depart ment, there are better, more important issues these gentle men could spend their time on. It is a shame that Jar Jar and Watto are being attacked in this fashion, because it is living proof that many Americans are still in desperate need of a hobby. Instead of tackling In dustrial Light and Magic creations, there are still real, perti nent issues in this nation that need to be tackled. If Jar Jar Binks could indeed speak for himself, he would probably say something to this effect: “Meesa Jar Jar Binks. Meesa not real.” Hopefully, these people that have “uncov ered” the racist underpinnings in Star Wars will get back to issues that are. Mark Passwaters is a graduate student in electrical engineering. Editorials appearing in The Battalion reflect the views of the edito rials board members. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of other Battalion staff members, the Texas A&M student body, regents, administration, faculty or staff. Columns, guest columns, cartoons and letters express the opinions of the authors. Editorials Board KASIE BYERS Editor in Chief SALLIE TURNER Managing Editor VERONICA SERRANO Executive Editor CALEB MCDANIEL Opinion Editor NON! SRIDHARA Campus Editor Brain Drain University should combat ill-advised visa renewal policy Thanks to misguided U.S. immigration laws, red tape will unfairly tie the hands of some faculty members at the Univer sity this fall. The work visas of several post-doctoral researchers and one assistant professor will ex pire at the end of August, and they will not be allowed to work until their renewal appli cations can be considered for approval on Oct. 1. As a result, these highly skilled University employees will be unnecessar ily sidelined. The policy responsible for this regrettable situation must be revised. First, it is pointless for im migration officials to set the re newal deadline one month af ter visa expiration dates. If the application schedule were only drafted using com mon sense, this 30-day lapse could be avoided. Secondly, an immigration policy which denies visas to highly skilled workers such as professors and post-doctoral researchers needlessly harms our academic institutions. It is in the country’s interest to attract intelligent foreign scholars instead of entangling them in a poorly designed bu reaucracy. Meanwhile, University ad ministrations must do all they can to accommodate faculty members who are penalized by the excessive technicality of the visa renewal process. Texas A&M University offi cials could examine the possi bility of hiring substitutes for the temporarily unemployed researchers and professors who are waiting for visas. If such an arrangement is made, these employees can re turn to work later in the se mester without losing their po sitions at the University. Students and other higher- education faculty members around the country should ral ly to propose and support more sensible legislation that will speedily approve visas for se lect high-skilled employees. Otherwise, U.S. universities, like Texas A&M, will suffer a disastrous “brain drain” during the school year as foreign scholars are left without visas and without work. If the Uni versity wishes to make its fac ulty one of the best in the na tion, it must attract and keep the best minds in the world.