Arts
uesday, February 13,1996
Page 9
Jeff Randall
Piggyback
bill trounces
free speech
Feb. 8,1996 — a day that will live
in infamy.
For those who haven’t heard, that
was the day President Clinton signed
the Telecommunications Act of 1996
into law.
Originally designed as a deregula
tion bill for the telecommunications
and cable television industries, the Act
received a small piece of piggyback
legislation that has created quite the
stir on the Internet.
This extra legislation, courtesy of
our own Sen. James Exon and Sen.
Slade Gordon,. R-Va., is called the
“Communications Decency Act.” It
effectively censors the Internet by put
ting a ban on providing material to
minors that is considered “indecent.”
Violation of this law will result in up
to $250,000 in fines and two years in
prison.
At first glance, tins may sound like
a good idea to even the most rabid
civil libertarians. After all, who wants
children to have full access to all sorts
of“indecenf ’ material?
There are, however, three major
problems with this law.
Firstly, the bill’s authors would
lead its critics to believe that indecent
material is not wholly banned by this
bill. The bill only restricts the distri
bution of “indecent” material to mi
nors, much in the same way porno
graphic videosand magazines are not
allowed to be sold to minors.
But the Internet doesn’t work the
same way the average skin trade does.
If some 8-year-old in Appleton, Wis.,
wants to get his eyes on Miss Janu
ary, there is very little anyone can do
about it. And that’s too bad.
The information providers have to
rely on good faith and trust in their
clients. They really have no control
over who gets what they have to of
fer. Maybe those parents in Appleton
need to exercise some control.
Secondly, the bill.’s definition of
“indecent” is so all-inclusive that even
marginally risque items such as
“Catcher in the Rye” and Venus de
Milo would fall under the ban. In ad
dition, discussion of topics such as
abortion and AIDS would be prohib
ited if the bill remained as it is now.
Color me reactionary, but doesn’t
this sound a little bit like “1984”? Ac
tually, now that I mention it, George
Orwell’s “1984” also falls under the
ban.
Ah, but on to the last problem.
This bill approaches the Internet as
your average, everyday form of pub
lic communication, lumping it in with
radio and television. The problem is,
the Internet is anything but this.
By placing bans on the Internet,
Congress has gut-punched free speech
and, in some circles, freedom of as
sembly (chat rooms count, don’t
they?). Our government needs to take
a serious look at finding a better defi
nition of the Internet.
Definitions have been ignored,
though, and now this formerly virgin
territory for would-be censors has be
come the home of one of the hottest
censorship debates this country has
seen in quite awhile.
The computer junkies of the world
have not taken the passage of this bill
lightly, to put it mildly. Before the bill
SeeCYBERSCAPE on 10
Gayle to shine
in Lied conceit
Wednesday night
By Cliff Hicks
Staff Reporter
If you’re still looking to take your sweetheart
somewhere special on
Valentine’s Day, country
musician Crystal Gayle
may be just the ticket.
Gayle will perform with
the Lincoln Orchestra on
Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at
the Lied Center.
Gayle began her career
while she was still in school,
with her debut single, “I’ve
Cried (The Blue Right Out
of My Eyes).” The song,
written by her sister, Loretta, reached the Top 25
on national country music charts.
In 1974, “Wrong Road Again” became her first
Top 10 hit. Her fourth and fifth albums, “We Must
Believe In Magic” and “When I Dream,” both
went platinum.
Since then, she has recorded a slew of albums,
as well as a soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola’s
acclaimed film, “One From The Heart,” with Tom
Waits. She also recorded the theme song from
“Another World.”
Recently, she has recorded the national theme
song for the Make-A-Wish foundation, as well
as served as co-host of the Arthritis Foundation
Telethon.
Gayle is touring for her new album, “Some
day.” Her first Christian recording, the album is a
blend of both original songs and traditional
hymns.
She has won many awards, including Most
Promising Female Vocalist in 1976 from the
Academy of Country Music, as well as being
named Female Vocalist of the Year twice by the
See GAYLE on 10
Photo courtesy of the Lincoln Orchestra Association
Crystal Gayle will be the featured performer in a concert with the Lincoln Orchestra
at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.
Medley of movies up for rent
Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures
Russell Crowe stars as Sid 6.7 in “Virtuosity,” one of this week’s new video
releases.
By Gerry Beltz
Rim Critic
There is quite a bevy of new releases this week,
dominated by heartfelt
drama and computers
gone-awry flicks. Also, in
celebration of Valentine’s
New Video
Rplease
Day, the NewVid love doc
tor will offer some roman
tic flicks to enjoy while
munching on overpriced
chocolates.
“Dangerous Minds” (R)
— Based on a true story,
I___l tms hick pits a mousy
teacher (Michelle Pfeiffer)
against a classroom of tough, inner-city kids. And
by the end of the movie, everyone has grown.
No, this isn’t a movie of the week. The film is
handled in an intelligent, and sometimes brutally
realistic, way. Pfeiffer’s performance is top-notch,
as usual, and the group of newcomers who make
up her class also shows great promise.
“Jeffrey” (R) — This one never made it to
Lincoln, so it’s probably pretty good.
Jeffrey (Steven Weber of “Wings”) is a gay
man who, concerned about the AIDS virus, de
cides to give up sex, despite the fact that he pre
viously has lived for it.
When an interior designer friend (Patrick
Stewart) sets Jeffrey up with another man,
Jeffrey’s fears keep him at bay.
“Jeffrey” is often surreal (where did Mothei
Theresa come from?), and received a greai
See NEWVID on1(
New Deal art
captures era,
historian’s eye
By Patrick Hambrecht
Senior Reporter
Thousands of 50-year-old murals, easel paint
ings and other art pieces sit forgotten in post of
fices and federal warehouses around the country.
But Francine Carraro, a visiting associate pro
fessor from Southwest Texas State University,
hasn’t forgotten them. Carraro will talk about
these ignored artifacts in her lecture, “An Art
Historian Reassesses the New Deal Murals,” on
Wednesday.
A deluge of federal- and state-sponsored art
flooded the United States when Franklin Delano
Roosevelt’s New Deal projects employed thou
sands of artists in the 1930s, Carraro said. At least
1 percent of the budget for every new or reno
vated public building was required to be set aside
for artwork, she said.
While some quality artists did emerge from
this new patronage, no true masterpieces ever
really did, Carraro said.
“None of the artists I’m going to be talking
about have really big names now,” she said.
Because all funded art projects were strained
through the sifters of both bureaucracy and pub
lic taste, it was hard for artists to create truly great
work within the confines of the system, she said.
But many positive things came out of the fed
eral art system. By circumventing the New York
art scene, new and regionally-influenced styles
were allowed to emerge.
Also, because the artists were rendered anony
mous for the competition, female creators were
allowed to escape prejudices and win competi
tions.
Carraro will speak at 3 p.m. in Love Library’s
Great Plains Art Collection room. On Thursday,
Carol Ahlgren will give a noon talk about Ne
. braskan New Deal art murals at the Museum of
I Nebraska History, 15th and P streets.