As many here at News Hounds probably know, Nancy Pelosi is proposing a budget for a scientific study into how large a role pop culture plays in violence. If you want my opinion, this is a great idea, because it can give us much needed insight into both the mental health issue and how much (if any) of a role movies and video games play. Unfortunately, on today's Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace didn’t just question the need for such a study, he more or less told her to ditch it and start pressuring her “liberal friends” in Hollywood to, as he put it, “knock it off.”
WALLACE: Gun control will be a big part of the president’s agenda in the State of the Union address Tuesday night. But I want to ask you about another part of the effort to stop these horrible, repeated acts of mass violence. As part of your plan, you call for more scientific research on the connection between popular culture and violence.
We don’t need another study, respectfully. I mean, we know that these video games, where people have their heads splattered, these movies, these TV shows. Why don’t you go to your friends in Hollywood and challenge them, shame them, and say, “Knock it off”?
…(Y)ou have a lot of friends in Hollywood. Why don’t you go to them and publicly say, “I challenge you to stop the video games?”
Pelosi answered, “ I understand what you’re saying. I’m a mother, I’m a grandmother. …But the evidence says that, in Japan, for example, they have the most violent games and the rest, and the lowest death, mortality from guns. I don’t know what the explanation is for that except they may have good gun laws.” She went on to argue that there was more than that “one piece” needed to solve the problem. She added that she also wants to stop sales of assault weapons. “What is the justification for an assault weapon? No further sales of those. No further sales of the increased capacity, 30 rounds in a gun. We are talking about background checks which is very popular, even among gun owners, and, hunters.” She also affirmed her support for both the First Amendment and for the right to own guns.
But Wallace kept pushing. “I think a lot of people say, 'Here it is, liberals like Nancy Pelosi want to go after gun owners. But, when it comes to mental health laws, when it comes to their liberal friends in Hollywood, they don’t want to make them ante up.'”
Pelosi responded, “We certainly have to do more” with regard to mental health laws and she pointed out that the Affordable Care Act will make “many more services available, because of mental health parity.”
“I think we have to do it all,” she said, noting that that includes examining the role of videos and movies. But, she continued, “I don’t think we should do anything anecdotally. We have a saying here—the plural of anecdote is not data. And so, we want to know what is the evidence, what would really make a difference here. And I think it has to be comprehensive."
Pelosi gave Wallace a full palette of issues about gun violence yet all he seemed interested in was pushing her into going after Hollywood. Without even bothering to get any scientific data for doing so.