Motion Picture Association of America CEO Chris Dodd received $3.3 million last year – more than the PTC’s entire annual budget. Yet under Dodd’s leadership, violence has tripled in PG-13 rated movies.
As was
widely reported in the press, a recently-published scientific
study in the medical journal
Pediatrics found that gun violence in PG-13–rated films has more than tripled since 1985.
The Motion Picture Association of America is responsible for assigning ratings to movies. Yet since former Democratic senator Chris Dodd took over leadership of the organization in 2009, he has proven more adept at knuckling under to the wishes of the entertainment industry than in ensuring that movie ratings actually reflect film content. (This is especially so in the case of Dodd’s close friend, producer Harvey Weinstein; Dodd’s MPAA consistently ignores Weinstein’s use of
f-bombs in PG-13 movies.)
As PTC President Tim Winter
has pointed out, the entertainment industry has a financial incentive for mis-rating its movies – and so does Chris Dodd. By giving a PG-13 rating to material that should merit an R, Hollywood ensures that millions of children can see ultra-violent and sexual material – meaning millions more paying customers, and billions of dollars in the industry’s coffers. And because the MPAA is funded by the entertainment industry (though it rates movies, the organization’s major role is as a lobbyist for the film industry), the more incentive its employees – including top boss Chris Dodd – have to help the industry get more customers…and the interests of parents and children be damned.
It is a tragedy that parents have no better guide than the MPAA’s misapplied ratings system for judging whether film content is appropriate for their kids. But it is a crime that Chris Dodd is rewarded with millions of dollars for failing families.
