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  3. No company likes to be told it is contributing to the moral decline of a nat

No company likes to be told it is contributing to the moral decline of a nat

游客2025-04-02  16
问题     No company likes to be told it is contributing to the moral decline of a nation. "Is this what you intended to accomplish with your careers?" Senator Robert Dole asked Time Warner executives last week. "You have sold your souls, but must you corrupt our nation and threaten our children as well?" At Time Warner, however, such questions are simply the latest manifestation of the soul searching that has involved the company ever since the company was born in 1990. It’s a self-examination that has, at various times, involved issues of responsibility, creative freedom and the corporate bottom line.
    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."
    Levin would not comment on the debate last week, but there were signs that the chairman was backing off his hard line stand, at least to some extent. During the discussion of rock singing verses at last month’s stockholders’ meeting, Levin asserted that "music is not the cause of society’s ills" and even cited his son, a teacher in the Bronx, New York, who uses rap to communicate with students. But he talked as well about the "balanced struggle" between creative freedom and social responsibility, and he announced that the company would launch a drive to develop standards for distribution and labeling of potentially objectionable music.
    The 15 member Time Warner board is generally supportive of Levin and his corporate strategy. But insiders say several of them have shown their concerns in this matter. "Some of us have known for many, many years that the freedoms under the First Amendment are not totally unlimited," says Luce. "I think it is perhaps the case that some people associated with the company have only recently come to realize this." [br] In face of the recent attacks on the company, the chairman ______.
选项 A、stuck to a strong stand to defend freedom of expression
B、softened his tone and adopted some new policy
C、changed his attitude and yielded to objection
D、received more support from the 15 member board
答案 B
解析 本题中，A项和C项明显与文章的意思不符；D项也与文章最后一段第2句话的意思不符。从文章第4段可知，Levin不想对上个星期的辩论发表评论，但有迹象表明这位董事长正在放弃他的强硬立场，至少在某种程度上是这样；Levin宣称，“音乐不是引发社会病的根源”，公司将采取措施，为可能引起异议的音乐制定各种发行和标志的标准。据此可知，Levin在逐渐放弃他的强硬立场，准备采取新的措施。B项与文章的意思相符，因此B项为正确答案。
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