Charlton Heston v. Ice-T's Cop Killer and Time Warner

Charlton Heston was a great American who always stood up for what he thought was right, no matter what the personal cost to himself. Back in the 60's he stood next to and marched with Martin Luther King Jr. when it was not the popular thing to do. He not only talked the talk, he walked the walk; he was a man of character.
-jbranstetter04

HESTON TAKING ON TIME WARNER'S PROMOTION OF "COP KILLER" ALBUM
(Conversation between host Tony Snow and Charlton Heston)

SNOW: "You have one of the great voices in the entertainment world. A few years ago, you showed up at a Time Warner stockholders meeting and started reading the lyrics from a rap album and just froze everybody in their tracks."

HESTON: "That was that terrible album by Ice T called 'Cop Killer.' And I'm very proud of this, I really am. I owned some Time Warner stock and I went in and confronted their full board meeting and read the lyrics. I can't repeat them on television."

SNOW: "No, you can't."

HESTON: "And I shamed Time Warner, the largest entertainment conglomerate in the world, into firing Ice T and dropping the album. Now, he threatened to kill me. He hasn't done that yet."

SNOW: "I believe your quote was something like 'Let him try.'"

HESTON: "Well, maybe I scared him. And I haven't gotten a job from Warner Brothers since or a good notice in Time, but I'm as proud of that as anything I've ever done."



A few years ago, I heard about a -- a rapper named Ice-T who was selling a CD called "Cop Killer," celebrating the ambushing and of murdering police officers. It was being marketed by none other than Time/Warner, the biggest entertainment conglomerate in the country -- in the world. Police across the country were outraged. And rightfully so. At least one of them had been murdered. But Time/Warner was stonewalling because the -- the CD was a cash cow for them, and the media were tiptoeing around because the rapper was black. I heard Time/Warner had a stockholders meeting scheduled in Beverly Hills, and I owned some shares of Time/Warner at the time, so I decided to attend the meeting.

What I did was against the advice of my family and my colleagues. I asked for the floor. To a hushed room of a thousand average American stockholders, I simply read the full lyrics of "Cop Killer" -- every vicious, vulgar, instructional word: I got my 12-Gauge sawed-off. I got my headlights turned off. I'm about to bust some shots off. I'm about to dust some cops off.

It got worse, a lot worse. Now, I won't read the rest of it to you. But trust me, the room was a sea of shocked, frozen, blanched faces. Time/Warner executives squirmed in their chairs and stared at their shoes. They hated me for that. Then I delivered another volley of sick lyrics brimming with racist filth, where Ice-T fantasizes about sodomizing the two 12-year-old nieces of Al and Tipper Gore: She pushed her butt against my --

No. No, I won't do to you here what I did to them. Let's just say I left the room in stunned silence. When I read the lyrics to the waiting press corps outside, one of them said, "We can't print that, you know." "I know," I said, "but Time/Warner is still selling it."

Two months later, Time/Warner terminated Ice-T's contract. I'll never be offered another film by Warner Brothers, or get a good review from Time magazine. But disobedience means you have to be willing to act, not just talk.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• charlton
• heston
• rap
• ice-t
• music
• cop
• killer
• song
• nra
• ban
• banning
• morality
• crap
• freedom
• rights
• time
• warner
• american

[SEB1991SEB]

I've just read the lyrics and listened to the song about the sodomy, and I don't think Charlton Heston understood the lyrics right. I'm pretty sure Ice-T only mentions Tipper Gore's nieces at one point in the song, and then talks about sodomising someone else later in the song.

Also the cop killer song was only about killing racist cops, rather than every cop. It just seems to him that every cop is like that, cos he's probably experienced a lot of racism.

[jbranstetter04]

@SEB1991SEB Are you justifying the killing of racist cops here?

[JDarkley]

Charlton Heston: He's all about the right to bear arms, but he seems to have a problem with free speech.

[jbranstetter04]

@JDarkley What he is doing here is advocating on behalf of free will, the free will of the stock holders to hold their company accountable. There is nothing at all wrong with that.

[JDarkley]

@jbranstetter04 Accountable of what? Signing an artist they ("they" being the stockholders) didn't like but apparently didn't know about until Mr. Heston starts reading off some of the more disagreeable lyrics? No, he was manipulating them to serve his own agenda. Sure Time-Warner never offered him another gig, but he's Charlton "Moses Himself" Heston, it's not like he's ever had trouble finding work. No, this was Mr. Heston being a crotchety old man with nothing better to do with his time.

[jbranstetter04]

@JDarkley The stockholders have their own brains. They can make up their own minds. Most people with influence will use it to further what they believe. There is nothing wrong with that. Is there?

[jbranstetter04]

@PANT3RA You confuse the issues. He is only exercising his first amendment of free speech. Why do you have a problem with it?

[Zeeboe]

@SEB1991SEB - I'm not the one living in ghettos, killing and hurting people all the time, and then going to schools and bullying people, am I? I'm not the one who disrespects women, and listens to songs about raping them, am I? I'm not the one disrespecting law enforcement - (The people who keep risk their lives to keep our society safe) am I? And yet *I* and people like me are the ones who should die so peace can be obtained? Really? Yeah, peace for the Planet of the Apes. ;-)

[SEB1991SEB]

@Zeeboe Your very existence is one of the things in the world getting in the way of peace. You need to die before the world can truly be at peace.

[D4N13L831]

@Zeeboe its not like gangbangers go out and target innocent people gangbangers target gangbangers, some people just die in the crossfire but thats not a good reason to pull over a black or mexican for something so simple and just beat the shit out of them c'mon have some sense man, a good example is the rodney king beating which was injustice

[Zeeboe]

@OrangeCounty15OH3 - Thank you by the way for living in the hood, & doing the KKK's work for them. The KKK doesn't have to go after you guys anymore because you all spend more time hurting each other then the KKK ever did.

[Zeeboe]

To make matters worst - We have to deal with dickless, white liberal pussies defending your kind & trying to make excuses for your actions by blaming the victims. The laws of the United States of America should only apply to WHITE PEOPLE. Not a bunch of savages. If there was any justice, there would be no ghettos & gangs, & you'd all be kept under control like you use to, & would be serving the White man. This country was a much safer place then.

[Zeeboe]

@OrangeCounty15OH3 - Black ghettos all across the world are like yours. You don't see White neighborhoods like that. Again, it's just your nature to be violent. That's why I hate you. The U.S. gives you free housing & food for your race, even though you completely destory every housing project you are given by making it uninhabitable by civilized standards by your corruption & willingness to make every nigger neighborhood a hotbed of drugs, violence, prostitution, & filth.

[Zeeboe]

@OrangeCounty15OH3 - Of course you desire to resort to violence because that's your nature. It was negroes like you the KKK use to hang. Of course, the media likes to make it seem like the KKK's victims were nice people. They weren't! They were thugs like the ones who live in your hood.

[Zeeboe]

@SEB1991SEB - All I desire is peace. However, too many rugheads & others of darker skin tones prevent that from ever happening. That is I hate them.

[SEB1991SEB]

@Zeeboe Actually you are the perfect example of what I was talking about. Now that you've provided us with this, why don't you take a stroll off the nearest 10 storey rooftop.

[OrangeCounty15OH3]

Zeeboe you're a bitch, you patrol this video 24/7 like anyone gives a fuck about what you say, I wish you came to my hood so you could get your ass whooped