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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 1999)
Page 10 • Tuesday, November 30, 1999 N ATION Coke stops advertising with WWF ATLANTA (AP) — The World Wrestling Federation (WWF) is too raw for Coca-Cola, which has stopped advertising on the in creasingly raunchy WWF telecasts despite their sizzling popularity. Coke ended its two-year advertising rela tionship with the WWF last month, citing ob jectionable language and content on broad casts such as the Monday night cable program “RAW is WAR,” which draws about 6 million viewers each week. The world’s biggest soft drink company still advertises with WWF’s main rival. World Championship Wrestling (WCW), a subsidiary of Time Warner’s Tbrner Broadcasting System. The WCW has been accused of making its sto ry lines more racy to compete with the WWF. But Coke said the WWF has gone too far. Stone Cold Steve Austin swills beers, spouts profanity and salutes other wrestlers with obscene gestures. The Godfather enters the ring dressed like a pimp and accompanied by scantily clad women. Female wrestlers pull each other’s hair and bikinis as they stumble around in high heels. “It crossed the line in terms of content, particularly in terms of language and story lines,” Coke spokesperson Bob Bertini said yesterday. “It’s not about one episode or one particular character. It’s what we observed over a period of time.” Coke’s decision comes as the Parents Tele vision Council, a Los Angeles-based conser vative group, is pressuring advertisers to drop WWF’s weekly “Smackdown!,” which is the top-rated program on the fledgling UPN. The Air Force and Army have already sus pended WWF ads, and several companies are Bad to the bone Advertisements by Coca-Cola will no longer be shown during the World Wrestling Federation’s telecasts. The company cites the WWF’s lewd language and story lines. Here is a look at the top draw in the 1980s and early 1990s compared to today’s WWF superstar. THEN ► Hulk Hogan Favorite saying: Would tell his young fans, called Hulkamaniacs, to eat their vitamins and say their prayers. The most recognized wrestler in the world, Hogan signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1994 after years with the WWF. He is considered a role model and positive force to his loving and adoring fans. ► “Stone Cold” Steve Austin Favorite saying: “And that's the bottom line, 'cause Stone Cold said so!" The WWF’s top attraction, the beer-swilling, gun-toting and head-banging Austin is as well known for extending his middle finger as for pinning opponents. The mere sight of him entering the ring drives crowds into a frenzy. Wrestlers behaving badly Here are some results of an Indiana University study.* 1,658 times that wrestlers grabbed or pointed to their crotch. 434 uses of an obscene phrase. 157 instances of flipping the bird. 128 incidents of simulated sexual activity. 47 incidents of simulated Satanic activity. 9 42 incidents of simulated drug use. *WWF programming was monitored for 100 hours. Court to address hate crime punishme The Battalion AP/Ed De Gasero considering it, L. Brent Bozell III, the founder of the Parents Television Council, said. “We’re telling these companies you can no longer distinguish the values of the spon sor from the values of the show they spon sor,” Bozell said. WWF chair Vince McMahon blasted Coke’s decision as “discriminatory, hypo critical and an affront to free speech” and la beled Bozell “a right-wing zealot.” Coke’s decision will not hurt WWF rev enue. It has a firm grapple hold on a young male audience that is increasingly hard for advertisers to reach. Advertising money from Coke made up 3 percent of WWF revenue, but its ad slots were “immediately snapped up by the movie studios and video game manufacturers at a premium,” WWF spokesperson Jim Byrne said yesterday. “This is almost a hide-your-eyes kind of thing” for advertisers,” Steven Karel, managing director of Extreme Championship Wrestling, the No. 3 player in the industry, said. ECW is credited with pioneering wrestling’s more las civious and violent leanings, especially on its uncensored pay-per-view shows. WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will referee a dispute over how to punish hate crimes, setting the stage for a ruling that will affect anti-bias laws in most states. The court said yesterday it will decide whether state judges can impose longer prison terms based on their own determi nations that crimes were sparked by prej udice. A decision'is expected by late June. At issue in a New Jersey case is whether a jury should decide if racial ha tred prompted a man to fire shots into a black family’s home. Nearly all the states enacted hate- crime laws in the 1980s. They provide ex tra punishment when crime victims were selected because of their race or religion, or in some instances sexual orientation. New Jersey was one of the first to adopt such a law, in 1981. The state bans the burning of crosses or placing of swastikas on public or private property with the intention of terrorizing others through threats of violence. Also outlawed is placing such graffiti on houses of worship or in cemeteries. The state’s law was expanded in 1990 to provide stiffer penalties for such common crimes as assault and harassment if prej udice played a part in selecting the victim. Charles C. Apprendi Jr. of Vineland, N.J., was arrested in 1994 after shots were fired into the home of a black family liv ing in his otherwise all-white neighbor hood. No one was injured in the shooting. “[The New Jersey Supreme Court does] punish more severely crimes involving particularly vulnerable victims” New Jersey Supreme Court ruling Apprendi said he fired four or five shots into the house, telling police he wanted to give the family who lived there a message that they did not belong in his neighborhood. He later said he was unfairly pressured into giving police what he contends was a false statement, and that his gunfire had been randomly directed when the house’s purple front door caught his eye. His lawyers now contend there was no racial intent. Apprendi pleaded guilty to a firearm violation and possessing a house, all of which carried a in, 10-year prison sentence. At a pie] ing, he admitted his purposefors:J at the house was to frighten the After prosecutors sought a s:l sentence under the state’s hate] law, the state trial judge impos year term. The judge said prose] had offered persuasive evidences prendi’s act was racially motivate Apprendi appealed the 12-yd tence, saying the hate-crime issue, have been decided by a jury m highest legal standard — whethen cutors provided proof of radalti yond a reasonable doubt. The New Jersey Supreme Coe ing against Apprendi, upheldb tence by a 5-2 vote last June. “We do not punish thought,”fc court said. "We do punish morose crimes involving particularly vuh, victims.” It added that theexister; “biased purpose” does not have proved to a jury beyond a teas doubt. Apprendi’s appeal said his at the time of the crime “critically his sentence” and should have treated as an element of theofe be considered by the jury. he coming 21st centui brought w an obsessive de: rank virtually e\ Ing in the pasi years. Almost e\ dly dawns a ne of the top 100 al movies pr peopl the century. ■ Nowhere is t pulsive habit m realm of literatu ■ Earlier this n co. a publisher dzed a list of th if English in tin ing lumps toget Theresa, Jack K Franz Kafka, by assortment of v ■ This list only more ballyhooe Boeing to join FAA in examining production of era] SEATTLE (AP) — The Boeing Co., embarrassed by a recent string of production lapses, will join the Federal Aviation Admin istration (FAA) in examining its production and quality-control systems, the government and the aircraft maker said yesterday. The decision to conduct the separate but simultaneous reviews comes a month after the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990, a Boeing 767, but results from other incidents, including: • An airline telling Boeing that two of 16 bolts holding the ver tical stabilizer onto the tail of a 767 were not sufficiently tightened. • Assembly line mechanics at Boeing’s Everett plant, where 747s, 767s and 777s are built, reporting that fuel tank repairs were being made after the tanks had been inspected and that debris such as sealant tubes and rivet guns were occasionally left behind. • An adhesive being improperly applied to a condensaii: rier that keeps moisture from dripping onto cockpit elec The drip shields also did not meet flammability standards,pi ing Boeing to briefly halt delivery of 50 airplanes while its was replaced. • The discovery of adhesive in some air ducts used plane cabins, requiring that some ductwork be brouglu FAA standards. None of the problems posed a direct safety hazard and cidents resulted. But they came in the shadow of themysi EgyptAir crash, in which all 217 people aboard diedwh plane plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off Massachusetts tucket Island Oct. 31. assembled by R publishes the pi ms. Last year, t released a list o els in the 20th c did the same th ■ All three list: to irk almost ev ther because of questionable oi I Some pundi tire notion of rr I “There’s sor about it,” write Newsweek maj ■ Other comm House’s selecti board of The G on s Aggies we like Think th are coping Ith the Bonfi jllapse as a f It is some- O AMO tayce r Defensive Driving with a Punch (Line)! Exclusively Nails Treat Yourself to the Best!! DEFENSIVE DRIVING ... COMEDY STYLE (Only $25 with Coupon) USA Training Co. Inc. 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