GOP Presses Attack on Film, Music Businesses : Entertainment: Bennett reads lyrics he says are not fit for human consumption. Dole talks of ‘shaming’ industry.

WASHINGTON —  Republican leaders Sunday pressed their campaign to “shame” the entertainment industry into cutting back on violence and sex in music and movies, with conservative activist William J. Bennett reading explicit song lyrics during a network TV news interview.

“Her body is beautiful, so I’m thinking rape. Shouldn’t have had her curtains open, so that’s her fate. . . . Whipped out my knife, and said, ‘If you scream I’m cuttin’.’ She begged in a low voice, ‘Please don’t kill me.’ I slit her throat and watched her shake like on TV.”

Bennett, a former secretary of education, cited the rap lyrics by the group Geto Boys during the usually staid broadcast of CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation,” which also flashed on the screen lyrics by popular alternative rocker Trent Reznor of the band Nine Inch Nails--with an array of expletives deleted. Reznor’s album is distributed by Interscope Records, which is partly owned by Time Warner Inc. Two weeks ago, Bennett confronted Time Warner executives about the issue of violent and sexually explicit lyrics at a company shareholders’ meeting.

“This stuff is not fit for human consumption. And it certainly is not fit for promotion and sales to children by what is the largest entertainment company in the world,” Bennett said Sunday.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), who last week attacked “depravity” in the film and music industry, echoed the same theme.

“I’m not talking about censorship. No federal laws,” he said on NBC’S “Meet the Press.” “But I think there is a moral leadership position that you can take. Shame is a powerful weapon.”

The chairman of Warner Brothers Records, Danny Goldberg, had been scheduled to appear with Bennett on “Face the Nation,” but backed out without explanation, said Bob Schieffer, the program’s host. Efforts to reach Goldberg on Sunday were unsuccessful.

“I think the reason is that the world’s largest communication company is virtually speechless on this issue. They cannot defend themselves in public,” Bennett said.

But actor James Woods, who was also on “Face the Nation,” accused Bennett and Dole of advocating censorship.

“We are unequivocally discussing censorship,” Woods said. “I think you cannot be cavalier about your trashing of the First Amendment. . . . Some of these movies, some of these lyrics, they disgust me. They disturb me. But they are the price I must pay to live in a free society.”

Woods cited the 1977 ruling in which a federal judge, supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, upheld the right of the American Nazi Party to march through Skokie, Ill. While any expression of Nazism is offensive, Woods said, “they should have a right” to express their views.

But Bennett countered that this comparison “totally misses the point.” Certainly Time Warner has a legal right to publish and promote Nazi propaganda, but it is not likely to do so, and would certainly be criticized if it did, he said.

“I’m seeking some drawing of the line by the companies themselves, some degree of self-regulation, some sense of shame, if you will,” said Bennett, who served as secretary of education in the Ronald Reagan Administration and as national drug czar under President George Bush.

Time Warner Chairman Gerald Levin has said that the company will launch a drive to develop standards for the distribution and labeling of potentially objectionable music, according to a report in Time magazine this week.

Dole fought off the criticism that he singled out some movies, such as “Natural Born Killers” and “True Romance,” while ignoring equally violent films, such as the movies of Arnold Schwarzenegger and “Die Hard With a Vengeance” featuring Bruce Willis, both of whom identify themselves as Republicans.

“I’m not a film critic. I’m not on the air every week saying, ‘Go see this movie,’ ” said Dole.

One of Dole’s chief rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, has had his own problems with the movies. It was revealed recently that 20 years ago, Gramm invested $7,500 with his brother-in-law to make a soft-porn movie titled “Beauty Queens.”