Devil's Advocate - Steroids

Milhouse - MLB enjoys a unique exemption from this nation's anti-trust laws. In exchange for special treatment, accorded to baseball because of its perceived importance as our national pastime, is it wrong for Congress to ask baseball to hold itself to higher standard than just "entertainment"?

We don't tell Hollywood how to make movies or rock groups how to make noise because open market forces give the audience the power of the dollar to determine what they like and don't like. And to some degree, we do tell Hollywood/Rock Groups how to make movies/noise since indecency laws put limits on the artistic freedoms of these entertainers.

But Baseball is legally exempt from competition. If I don't like Brittany Spears, then I can listen to something else. If find Ben Affleck movies unwatchable (and I do), I don't have to stop watching movies altogether, I have other choices. If enough people agree with me, Brittany Spears would soon be a Vegas showgirl and Ben Affleck would be pumping gas because their noise/movies wouldn't make any money.

By contrast, if I don't like Jose Canseco and his ilk directly and indirectly encouraging my kids to take steroids, then I have to turn off baseball altogether. If enough people agree with me, then baseball simply dies. That's the difference.

I'm not for Congress wasting time, but last week we had the Full Committee Hearing on Drinking Water in the Nation's Capital. I think steroids as a public safety issue is at least as important as that!