Sharpton calls for broadcast ban against violence in music

Received by Newsfinder from APMar 7, 2005 3:33 Eastern Time NEW YORK (AP) _ Rev. Al Sharpton said he will propose a 90-day ban on radio and television airplay for any performer who uses violence in their music to make a profit. The activist and former presidential candidate plans to ask the Federal Communications Commission and major radio broadcasters around the country to support the ban. “There has to be a way to step in and regulate what’s going on with the airwaves and with violence,” Sharpton told the Daily News in Monday editions. “The airwaves are being used to romanticize urban violence.” Sharpton’s announcement follows last week’s shooting at the WQHT-FM studios that was suspected to be started by a feud between rappers 50 Cent and The Game. Kevin Reed, a 24-year-old member of The Game’s entourage was shot in the leg in the lobby of Hot 97 soon after 50 Cent said he was booting The Game from his G-Unit clique. “We may not be able to stop people from shooting, but we can stop people from profiting from the violence,” said Sharpton. He said that he would not try to broker peace between artists and would not comment specifically on the feud between the two rappers. But he said in a letter he plans to send to the FCC and broadcast networks that the outcry against violence in music should get as much attention as Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction.” “I recall the outrage that the FCC and others displayed in response to the Super Bowl performance of Jackson,” Sharpton wrote. “Yet, when acts of violence happen around radio stations that actually have caused bloodshed, there has been a strange and disturbing silence from all quarters.”