A group of state attorney generals, looking for something to do, are targeting smoking in movies. Using dubious statistics, they claim that kids who watch movies are three times more likely to begin smoking. Really? And what movies are the other kids watching? Is there any actual correlation between watching the movies and smoking? Do the kids say they smoke because of it?
But the funniest part of this is that it’s the liberal nanny goverment attacking the liberal Hollywood elite. Of course, Hollywood insists that movies and TV don’t influence anybody to do anything ... except of course the ads influence people to buy things, but that’s different—somehow.
By the way, wasn’t the death sentence for Joe Camel, the increase in cigarette taxes, new penalties on tobacco sellers that don’t card or sell to minors, the “Truth” ads on TV, and all kinds of time-consuming school curricula supposed to decrease teen smoking? But it went up? Huh, imagine that. It’s amazing that all the nanny government nagging hasn’t worked.
I haven’t read the information about the study, but my point is that correlation is not always causation. Do the studies show causation? Do they have testimony from kids who say they started smoking because they saw it in the movies?
I see so many news stories citing studies that say all kinds of things, drawing conclusions without necessarily proving a link between one thing and another. Do these studies prove it, because the news story doesn’t leave me with reason to think they do?