Violence in the Media

“If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” — Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr.,  Texas v. Johnson

“Every legislative limitation upon utterance, however valid, may in a particular case serve as an inroad upon the freedom of speech which the Constitution protects.” — Supreme Court Justice Stanley F. Reed, Winters v. New York , 333 U.S. 507, 510 (1948)

"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us." --Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, " The One Un-American Act ."  Nieman Reports ,  vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953): p. 20.

“The Constitution exists precisely so that opinions and judgments, including esthetic and moral judgments about art and literature, can be formed, tested, and expressed. What the Constitution says is that these judgments are for the individual to make, not for the Government to decree, even with the mandate or approval of a majority. Technology expands the capacity to choose; and it denies the potential of this revolution if we assume the Government is best positioned to make these choices for us.”—Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy    

“Congress Shall Make No Law Respecting an Establishment of Religion, or Prohibiting the Free Exercise Thereof; or Abridging the Freedom of Speech, or of the Press; or the Right of the People Peaceably to Assemble, and To Petition the Government for a Redress of Grievances.” —  First Amendment

Michael Moore Asks Big Questions
“It can’t just be the video games, because the Japanese play more of them and watch more brutally violent movies. It can’t be our history of violence, because the Germans don’t have as much trouble. It can’t be poverty, ethnic tension or the number of guns, because the Canadians have just as many minorities, just as many unemployed and just as many guns per head. It can’t be Marilyn Manson, because everybody listens to Marilyn Manson (who by the way is shown to be refreshingly articulate in the film).”

From the National Coalition Against Censorship, please see The First Amendment Pop Culture and the Silly Season

Reason

An Appeal to Reason, from the Free Expression Network, is an appeal to Hollywood executives to provide the highest quality entertainment possible which also urges them to resist the pressure to create taboos, villainize art and artists, and onstrain the creative imagination. It is also is a response to the Appeal to Hollywood, which calls for “a new voluntary code of conduct, broadly modeled on the NAB code” that its creators envision would “(1) affirm in clear terms the industry’s vital responsibilities for the health of our culture; (2) establish certain minimum standards for violent, sexual, and degrading material for each medium, below which producers can be expected not to go; (3) commit the industry to an overall reduction in the level of entertainment violence; (4) ban the practice of targeting of adult-oriented entertainment to youth markets; (5) provide for more accurate information to parents on media content while committing to the creation of ‘windows’ or ‘safe havens’ for family programming (including a revival of TV’s ‘Family Hour’); and, finally, (6) pledge the industry to significantly greater creative efforts to develop good family-oriented entertainment.”