by Derrick Z. Jackson

About the author: Derrick Z. Jackson is a contributing columnist for Liberal Opinion Week.

At a May 13, 1999, Senate hearing on violent youth entertainment, Kansas Republican Sam Brownback railed against “movies that depict teens killing their classmates; music with lyrics that glorify suicide, torture, and murder; TV that trivializes the consequences of violence; and video games that simulate real-life killing and give points for each death.”

Utah’s Orrin Hatch and Connecticut’s Joseph Lieberman raised the idea of a federal probe into the marketing of violent video games, movies, and music. Lieberman said that senators do not want to resort to regulation, but if the entertainment industry “continues to market death and degradation to our children, and continues to...