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這是一篇關(guān)于大眾傳媒題材的文章。

Gerald Levin

Steve Ross

Ice T’s

Time Warner

Cop Killer

Wall Street Journal

At the core of this debate is chairman Gerald Levin, 56, who took over for the late Steve Ross in 1992. On the financial front, Levin is under pressure to raise the stock price and reduce the company's mountainous debt, which will increase to 17.3 billion after two new cable deals close. He has promised to sell off some of the property and restructure the company, but investors are waiting impatiently. The flap over rap is not making life any easier for him. Levin has consistently defended the company's rap music on the grounds of expression. In 1992, when Time Warner was under fire for releasing Ice-T's violent rap song Cop Killer, Levin described rap as a lawful expression of street culture, which deserves an outlet. 'The test of any democratic society,' he wrote in a Wall Street Journal column, 'lies not in how well it can control expression but in whether it gives freedom of thought and expression the widest possible latitude, however disputable or irritating the results may sometimes be. We won't retreat in the face of any threats.'
56歲的現(xiàn)任董事長杰拉德?列文是爭論的焦點(diǎn)人物，他于1992年接替已故董事長斯蒂夫?羅斯。財政方面，他承受著使股價升值，減少公司巨額債務(wù)的壓力。在兩筆新的有線電視交易談妥后，公司債務(wù)將達(dá)到173億美元。他也允諾出售部分資產(chǎn)并對公司進(jìn)行重組，但現(xiàn)在投資者們?nèi)栽诮辜钡氐却?人們對說唱音樂的焦慮并沒使他的日子好過一些。列文一向以表現(xiàn)方式為理由來捍衛(wèi)公司的說唱音樂。1992年公司因出品Ice-T樂隊暴力的說唱歌曲《警察殺手》后倍受譴責(zé)時，列文卻將說唱音樂描述為街頭文化的合法表達(dá)方式，并說它應(yīng)該有自己的宣泄途徑。他在《華爾街日報》一篇專欄文章中寫道：“對任何一個民主社會的檢驗(yàn)，不在于它能多有效的控制情感的表達(dá)，而在于是否給予了人們最廣泛的思考和表達(dá)自由，盡管有時這種結(jié)果會引起爭論和憤怒。我們不會在任何威脅面前退卻?！?/div>