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- THE WEEK, Page 23BUSINESSFire and Ice-T
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- Protesters demand that Time Warner pull its Body Count album
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- The 1,100 shareholders who crammed into Time Warner's annual
- meeting, held this year in Beverly Hills' Regent Beverly
- Wilshire, had more than financial statements on their minds.
- Police representatives and other critics blasted the company for
- releasing black rapper Ice-T's Body Count album and its Cop
- Killer cut, which contains such lines as "Die Pig, Die!" During
- the five-hour session, actor Charlton Heston denounced Time
- Warner for, among other things, shipping the compact discs to
- radio stations in miniature body bags. (A company spokesman said
- the bags were in keeping with the theme of the album, which
- includes cuts warning about the dangers of drug use and gang
- warfare.)
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- Gerald Levin, Time Warner president and co-chief executive
- officer, said the firm would not pull the album, which he
- described as "depicting the despair and anger that hang in the
- air of every American inner city, not advocating attacks on
- police." He said Time Warner would sponsor a TV forum for
- artists, law-enforcement officials and others to discuss such
- topics as racism and free speech. Levin also said the company
- was declaring a 4-for-1 stock split and increasing its dividend
- 12%.
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