The LA Times recently ran a lengthy story about six women who came into contact with Arnold Schwarzenegger on movie sets, in studio offices and in other settings over the last three decades who say he touched them in a sexual manner without their consent.
   The Terminator’s campaign had denied or given differing versions of the encounters, charging that the emergence of the story is part of an escalating political attack on Schwarzenegger as the recall approaches today's vote.
   This, in spite of the fact that the Times did not learn of any of the six women from Schwarzenegger's rivals in the recall race. And none of the women approached the newspaper on their own.
   Reporters contacted them in the course of a seven-week examination of Schwarzenegger's behavior toward women on and off the movie set.
   The saddest part of all this is that the story is unlikely to have much impact on the election. Past allegations of everything from group sex to drug use by the former body builder have been excused by voters as “past history.”
   While all of us have youthful behavior we are not proud of, isn’t it a sorry commentary on this country that someone like Schwarzenegger is on a ballot for anything (much less leading in the polls).
   Blame it on the breakdown of the family unit. Blame it on Bill Clinton. Blame it on hippies-turned-parents. 
   But for goodness sake don’t blame it on “the media!”
   The TV, music, video game and movie industries will defend their programming with two arguments: 1) we are simply a reflection of society; and 2) if you don’t like us, don’t partake of us. 
   Liberals will counter that the media performs an “agenda-setting” function essentially telling media consumers not only what to think about but how to think about it. 
   While the internet provides the first truly accessible alternative to the POVs of the major media conglomerates, it hasn’t figured out how to package and present itself in a mass-reach manner.
   When you are growing up a liberal, dope-smoking party animal (yes, I did inhale), you don’t really care much about media content; in fact, the sexier and gorier, the more you like it.
   It is only when you become a parent and begin to appreciate the enormous impact media has on your kids that you start thinking that maybe Agnew had a point.
   A few years ago when my son and I were having The Talk, it was so interesting to see that most of his information about sex came not from his buddies on the school bus but from lines from songs he remembered or scenes from movies or TV or video games. 
   When I would give him the slightly-uptight-middle-class- plain-vanilla explanations about sexual acts, he would match them with misogynistic, callous lyrics, asking, “Is that what (insert your own most-deplorable rapper here) means when he says xxxxx?”
   While the entertainment industry (and non-parents) will respond by saying “It is your responsibility to monitor what your kids see and hear,” I would argue that the net effect of so much pervasive garbage on TV, in movies and in music represents an unstoppable force that can only be remedied by locking your kids in a closet until they are 21.
   I am no blue-nosed conservative and defend the right of artists to produce anything their minds can imagine (and someone will buy), but the cumulative effect on our culture has been to debase it to the point that we wink at presidential blow jobs and don’t howl in protest when a steroid-nourished, woman-hating movie star (and a bad one at that) runs for governor of the largest state in our union.
   While it is your jobs to buy the best possible impressions to support your client’s marketing goals, stop and ask yourself if the programming you are supporting with your client’s money is something that will further erode the moral high ground on which we used to stand. 
    Just because a network censor says it’s OK or a critic gives it a grand review or it sits atop the charts doesn’t mean that you are absolved from using your own judgment about content.
   The only thing the entertainment industry understands is money. Vote with yours.