Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 30, 1994 TAG: 9405020153
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
``Hollywood is sick,'' Nixon wrote in his 10th book, completed only weeks before his death on April 22. Random House rushed the book into print and said it will be in stores next week.
``Beyond Peace'' urges a new path for America both in foreign affairs and at home. Nixon's observations of the national scene are rooted in conservative beliefs.
``The depiction of violence and explicit sex sells, and Hollywood is in the business of making money,'' Nixon wrote. ``By forgoing its responsibility to observe basic standards of decency, Hollywood has accelerated the decline of these standards in the community at large.''
He warned that unless Hollywood cleans up its act, it will inevitably face censoring by government.
The 37th president, whose Watergate scandals eroded trust in government, said the news media ``bear a large share of the responsibility for the current loss of faith in American political institutions.''
An institutional bias in the press ``makes for excessively harsh criticisms of all politicians and public officials,'' he wrote. ``Competitive pressures too often push the media past the limits of responsibility, destructively and unnecessarily undermining the authority and credibility of government.''
While the news media would not have physicians certify themselves or politicians investigate themselves, ``we are taught to expect that editors, reporters and broadcasters have a unique capacity to ensure that they themselves act responsibly,'' he said.
Nixon said he started the Environmental Protection Agency to find a balance between economic growth and protecting the environment.
``But as so often happens with government programs, the pendulum has swung too far,'' he said. ``Measures designed to protect endangered species such as bears, wolves, and the bald eagle are now being used to force Idaho farmers off their land for the sake of the thumbnail-size Bruneau Hot Springs snail.''
He called ``all 1,342 impenetrable pages'' of the Clinton health care plan ``a blueprint for the takeover by the federal government of one-seventh of the nation's economy.''
The former president maintained that the criminal justice system ``has abysmally failed to deliver what should be the first freedom: freedom from fear.''
He said most political leaders, in order not to appear racist, shirk the question of race as it affects crime.
``What is truly racist is to avoid addressing the problems of black America for the sake of avoiding offending people's sensibilities,'' he wrote.
by CNB