Comment on: Seeing Red Over R-Rated Trailers on 3/26/2010
It's been over a year since the Halicarnassian has seen daylight long enough to get a message out - but a new epoch has arrived, knowledge is still power, and the future still needs us to channel our history.
Today's commentary is on a bit of filler news: the debate over mainstream movie trailer on the internet. A self-regulated industry, arguing over Hollywood decency standards is irrelevant at best - but telling in this case.
The man at the forefront of the argument for increased controls (supposedly for viewer age) is John Aristotle Phillips. The kind soul who forwarded the article my way was able to dig up more relevant facts that the paper of record did not see 'fit to print' - about the man who's company (Aristotle, Inc.) stands to gain most.
The casual reader would assume that as CEO, Mr. Phillips is a business-minded purveyor of social technology, albeit technology that restricts access to information and media. But Aristotle, Inc.'s core business is political data, and perhaps because it is decidedly non-partisan it does not seem to be choosy about its clients or mission. Can web viewers at regulated sites like MySpace really expect the company to put aside the interests of the politicos in pushing solutions on internet distributors? Do MySpace and others have any reason to believe that more invasive age verification will benefit their audience and the business model?
I cannot definitively say more. But consider that behind closed doors, high profile content providers will ask Mr. Phillips more about who wants tough age verification and why. If the MySpaces of the United States do move to tighten the reins, we can expect that they found allies worth the insult to visitors.
