Unlock document.
This document is partially blurred.
Unlock all pages and 1 million more documents.
Get Access
391
Chapter 16
Legal Controls and Freedom of Expression
In this chapter, we will:
• Examine free-expression issues, focusing on the implications of the First Amendment for a
1. The Pentagon Papers Case
2. The Progressive Magazine Case
4. Defenses against Libel Charges
6. The Right to Privacy
D. First Amendment versus Sixth Amendment
2. Cameras in the Courtroom
1. The Motion Picture Production Code
2. The Miracle Case
C. The MPAA Ratings System
III. Expression in the Media: Print, Broadcast, and Online
A. The FCC Regulates Broadcasting
B. Dirty Words, Indecent Speech, and Hefty Fines
C. Political Broadcasts and Equal Opportunity
D. The Demise of the Fairness Doctrine
E. Communication Policy and the Internet
IV. The First Amendment and Democracy
393
Media Literacy and the Critical Process: Who Knows the First Amendment?
Global Village: The Challenges of Film Censorship in China
Examining Ethics: Is “Sexting” Pornography?
LECTURE IDEAS
I. The Origins of Free Expression and a Free Press
and speech: authoritarian, communist or state, libertarian, and social responsibility.
ranked forty-fifth in the world in press freedom in 2018. Here are some of the highlights
from the organization’s 2015 report:
Model.”
• Security is the grounds most often given by governments for silencing media.
• Fifteen of the twenty worst ranked countries saw their scores fall.
394
(See Reporters without Borders Press Freedom Index 2015:
https://rsf.org/en/news/world-press-freedom-index-2015-decline-all-fronts.)
• In 2013, Reporters without Borders reported the following:
• Reporters without Borders summed up 2013 this way: “The ranking of most countries is
no longer attributable to dramatic political developments. This year’s index is a better
reflection of the attitudes and intentions of governments towards media freedom in the
medium or long term.”
The analysis found that less than 14 percent of the world’s inhabitants lived in countries with a
population data into the findings of the survey.
395
(See Freedom House, Freedom of the Press 2015, at
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/freedom-press-2015#.VrixAbkrKiY.)
Papers and the Progressive magazine cases.
• Officially launched in 2007, WikiLeaks refers to itself as a media organization and the
whistleblowers who share information as their journalists. Here is its manifesto from its Web
site (http://wikileaks.org):
Our goal is to bring important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative,
secure and anonymous way for sources to leak information to our journalists (our electronic
drop box). One of our most important activities is to publish original source material
alongside our news stories so readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth. We
are a young organisation that has grown very quickly, relying on a network of dedicated
volunteers around the globe.
• WikiLeaks has made worldwide headlines many times over since 2007 with its publication of
396
of Australia, could be a traitor to the United States hasn’t ever really been explained).
• Assange himself was arrested in early December 2010 in Great Britain based on sexual
Cuba.
• Although WikiLeaks does not reveal the names of its sources, an investigation by the U.S.
government resulted in May 2010 in the arrest of Pfc. Chelsea (previously Bradley)
• In June 2011, on the fortieth anniversary of the publishing of the Pentagon Papers in the
wish I could say that our government has improved its treatment of whistle-blowers in the 40
397
years since the Pentagon Papers.” (See Anna Mulrine, “Pentagon Papers vs. WikiLeaks: Is
Bradley Manning the New Daniel Ellsberg?” Christian Science Monitor, June 13, 2011.)
relevant cases.
• An incredible series of overreactions in Oklahoma City in the summer of 1997 resulted in the
then went to Oklahoma City video stores and libraries and rounded up all copies. One
Blockbuster Video store employee even provided the names of the two customers who had
checked out copies. Again without warrants, police went to these two homes and demanded
the return of the videocassettes of the nearly twenty-year-old movie.
• The American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit against Blockbuster for revealing the names
involve teenage characters (played by adult actors). After the Oklahoma City episode, video
rentals of The Tin Drum skyrocketed across the United States.
398
visible to jury members. For example, when a camera is suddenly switched on or adjusted to
videotape something or someone, jury members may conclude that the events of that moment
are “newsworthy” and therefore more important than other parts of the trial.
II. Film and the First Amendment
• Discuss the history of film with regard to the First Amendment. Play excerpts of films such
as The Miracle, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Gremlins, and Indiana Jones and the
399
Director Hawks refuses to alter Scarface in response to Hays’s demands, but producer
Howard Hughes eventually defers on certain points. Hughes changes the title to Scarface:
The Shame of the Nation, and adds Hays’ suggested prologue that describes the film as an
“indictment of gang rule in America.” In addition, an entire scene is inserted to address the
Code’s concerns, in which citizens confront the newspaper publisher, frustrated by all the
publicity gangsters receive in the press.
Hays does permit scenes that hint at title character Tony Camonte’s incestuous feelings for
“vicious” and “evil.”
sexual relations, scenes of actual childbirth, and the illegal traffic of drugs.”
(2000), Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), Bruno (2009), The Evil Dead (2013), and The
Wolf of Wall Street (2013).
III. Expression in the Media: Print, Broadcast, and Online
401
• The FCC regulates broadcast content on radio (AM and FM) and “over-the-air” television
(VHF and UHF). The FCC Web site overview of Program Content Regulations
(https://www.fcc.gov/media/program-content-regulations) offers an easy-to-understand
overview of broadcast regulation in the form of frequently asked questions (e.g., “Does the
FCC regulate the content of cable programming?” and “ How have obscenity and indecency
been defined?”).
2002, and just 350 in 2001. Appearing before Congress in February 2004, FCC chair Michael
Powell said the complaints registered “a dramatic rise in public concern and outrage about
what is being broadcast into their homes.”
402
from those concerning the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” during the Super Bowl
“fleeting expletives” policy. (See Brooke Barnes, “TV Watchdog Group Is on the
Defensive,” New York Times, October 24, 2010.)
• In 2015, the PTC asked its members to file complaints with the FCC over a Family Guy
aired.
• Define the type of programs that qualify as core programs.
• Air at least three hours per week of core educational programming.
403
• “Core programming” is programming specifically designed to serve the educational and
informational needs of children ages sixteen and under. Core programming must have the
children’s television programming to 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends and 12 minutes per
hour on weekdays. These requirements apply to television broadcasters, cable operators, and
interest, was not statutorily mandated, and was inconsistent with First Amendment values.”
(See the full order at https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-11-1432A1.pdf.)
Ask students to consider whether a version of the Fairness Doctrine, which required
broadcast radio and television stations to provide competing points of view when discussing
controversial issues, be revived.
404
405
• Indeed, protest is essential to democracy. Most of the huge movements in the United States
did not come from voting but by protest; consider the Common School movement, workers’
rights, women’s suffrage, the Civil Rights movement, and antiwar movements. Voting is
only one part of a functioning democracy.
MEDIA LITERACY DISCUSSIONS AND EXERCISES
ADVERTISING NC-17 FILMS
MODELS OF EXPRESSION AND SPEECH
“PUBLIC INTEREST”?
406
Ask students if they believe that broadcast radio and television really operate in the “public
considering whether to renew that broadcaster’s license?
1. Description. Call or visit local movie theaters, video/DVD stores, music retailers, magazine
NC-17; (b) selling recordings with parental advisory labels; (c) displaying and selling adult
Second, interview customers of these media outlets. Have their buying or renting experiences
been restricted according to age, or do retailers ignore age guidelines?
407
3. Interpretation. What are the meanings of the patterns? You might wish to consider the main
5. Engagement. With the aid of your course instructor, develop your findings into a more
stronger self-enforcement of age restrictions by media retailers? Does it suggest government
action? Or does it suggest a problem with retailers who use media-labeling systems as the
default censorship system (i.e., they don’t sell or rent any content with adult ratings or
parental advisory labels)?
DOES EXPRESSION ON THE INTERNET NEED LAWS?
408
Divide the class into four groups, and stage a mock public forum to consider the current
debate over legal control of the Internet.
consumer interests. This group will align itself if necessary with Group 2 as long as that
alliance doesn’t infringe on its commercial interests.
the home.
becomes a citizen medium.
• Group 4: The reporters who ask the tough questions.
409
spokespersons as “specialists” on various issues and consider what questions they will be asked
by the reporters. Group 4 should brainstorm and prepare an equal number of questions for each
group.
compromises completely undermine each group’s position?
CLASSROOM MEDIA RESOURCES
LAUNCHPAD FOR MEDIA & CULTURE:
launchpadworks.com
Bloggers and Legal Rights (2009, 4:06 minutes). Legal and journalism scholars discuss the legal
rights and responsibilities of bloggers. Featuring Richard Campbell, Frank LoMonte, and Joe
Urschel.
Bullying Converges Online (2013, 4:35 minutes). This video explains the spread of
cyberbullying and its effects.
and Frank LoMonte.
Freedom of Information (2010, 4:51 minutes). In this video, George Kennedy interviews Ken
Bunting about the National Freedom of Information Coalition.
410
Stephen Colbert Interviews John Seigenthaler (2014, 5:10 minutes). In this video, Stephen
Colbert, on his former Comedy Central fake news program The Colbert Report, interviews
John Seigenthaler, author of “A False Wikipedia ‘Biography.’”
VIDEOS/DVDS/CDS
DC Metro Bans First Amendement (Aug. 9, 2017). Can the government ban the text of the First
Amendment on municipal transit ads? The ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging the Washington
