The portrayal of violence in popular culture took center stage during a Wednesday (9/13) Senate committee hearing called by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to discuss the marketing practices of the motion picture, music and video game industries. Eminem [ tickets ], who earlier this month said that “every time a critic tries to slam me in the press, I sell more records,” was among the high-profile topics of the day.

McCain scheduled the hearing in response to a newly released study by the Federal Trade Commission that found evidence that the marketing efforts of media companies were targeting young people for adult-oriented entertainment. In his introductory statement, McCain called the current CD labeling system "basically useless, as it contains no content information and no age-appropriate recommendations."

Eminem’s lyrics were specifically called into question in the testimony of Lynne Cheney, a former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the wife of vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney.

“In ‘Kill You,’ a song from his album ‘The Marshall Mathers LP,’ he begins by describing the satisfaction of raping and murdering his mother and then goes on to imagine the joys of murdering any woman he might come across,” Cheney said. “’Wives, nuns, sluts,’ whoever ‘the bitches’ might be, he will kill them slowly, leaving enough air in their lungs so their screaming will be prolonged. He will paint the forest with their blood. ‘I got the machete from O.J.,’ he shouts, ‘Bitch I’m a kill you.’”

Cheney said she wrote letters to the two female board members of Seagram--the parent corporation of the label that released the Eminem album--asking them to support changes to the parental advisory labels that adorn CDs containing explicit lyrics. “…In one instance, the standard would be that no one under 17 can buy an advisory-labeled CD; in another, no one under 13,” Cheney said.

Marilyn Manson [ tickets ]’s name was also dropped by Cheney. “…The time has long passed when we can shrug off violence in the entertainment industry by saying that it has no effect, by saying it’s just a coincidence that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the murderers of Columbine High, were fans of the shock rocker, Marilyn Manson, also distributed by Seagram.

“…Seagram is hardly the only culprit,” she continued. “That company may produce and distribute Eminem, but the entire music industry reveres him. Last week, he received three MTV music awards, including best male artist. It is truly astonishing to me that a man whose work is so filled with hate would be so honored by his peers.”

Senator and vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) called for “better citizenship” from the major entertainment companies. “These same companies contribute so much to our culture, our economy and to the American experience,” he said. “But they are also contributing to some serious national troubles, and we need their cooperation if we are to make things better.”

Among those speaking in defense of the entertainment industry were Danny Goldberg, a longtime First Amendment advocate who is currently the president of the independent label Artemis Records.

"I believe 15 years of youth culture entertainment bashing in Washington has greatly contributed to alienation and apathy on the part of young people in politics,'' Goldberg said. He also argued against changing the current music labeling system. "We don't have pictures. We don't have nudity. We don't have blood,'' Goldberg said. "All we have is words, and all we can do is label the curse words.''

Hillary Rosen, president and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, argued that findings in the FTC report were overblown, and that new RIAA labeling guidelines scheduled to go into effect on Oct. 1 address many of the concerns outlined in the report.

“For each person who believes rap lyrics portray a foreign world, there is another who finds them deep and powerful because that world is all to real,” she said.

And Strauss Zelnick, president and CEO of BMG Entertainment, expressed doubt that entertainment is a cause for violence in America, and instead turned the focus on guns.

“Our homicide rate is five times greater than the United Kingdom’s, six times greater than Japan’s,” he said. “…In this regard, what makes America unique is not its popular culture but our relative ease of access to guns. Today, almost 40% of households in America have firearms--that’s far more than any other advanced nation.”

Though representatives from the music industry and the video game industries were on hand to testify at the hearing, not a single executive from the motion picture industry appeared. After scolding the no-show executives, McCain scheduled another hearing for Sept. 27 to further discuss the movie industry’s marketing practices.