How to Stop Music & TV Censorship

Fight censorship by opposing candidates who support it.

For as long as humans have communicated, other humans have tried to censor them. But just as there are many ways to protest the substance of music, movies, television, books and all the other forms of public speech in our lives, proponents of free speech can fight just as vigorously against those forces to uphold the First Amendment of the Constitution and the freedom of true artistic expression. Former "Rolling Stone" editor, Dave Marsh, came up with a list of 50 ways to fight censorship in media. Most center around the idea of putting your money and time where you mouth is.

Instructions

1. Familiarize yourself with the organizations most responsible for censoring music and television. Primarily, these include major corporations that own television networks and radio stations that satisfy stringent requirements long imposed by the Federal Communications Commission.

2. Support and vote for local, state and national officials who uphold the First Amendment. These officials may eventually help to appoint the Supreme Court justices who will have liberal or conservative views of what constitutes the "community standard," the current measure for whether certain material is obscene.

3. Volunteer your time to fight censorship in music and television when you see it. Send a letter to the Federal Communications Commission or a particular network to protest an act of music or television censorship you've observed. Start a local chapter of the National Coalition Against Censorship (see Resources) to help build a well-rounded group of local professionals to act against censorship when it happens in your community.

4. Speak out against censorship. For example, although the Supreme Court has ruled that principals, superintendents and teachers can censor student performances, that doesn't mean you can't attempt to change their minds through constructive debate or a friendly rally.

5. Create a website devoted to publishing censored music or television shows in their directors' cuts.

6. Start a petition against any proposed laws that attempt to censor music or television programming.

7. Offer financial support to causes that seek to reduce the amount of music and television censorship that currently exists. Although the NCAC is the most prominent, numerous other groups like Rock Out Censorship seek to push back against corporate, religious and governmental control of media messages.

8. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper to decry an act of music or television censorship.

9. Organize a picket line and protest an act of censorship in front of the organization or business that perpetrated it.

Tips & Warnings

• The First Amendment states: "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."

• "Make the real obscenities the real issues," states former RS Editor Marsh, capping off his list of 50 ways to fight the powers that uphold censorship.

References

• National Coalition Against Censorship: Ways to Fight Censorship
• Cornell University School of Law: The Fill of Rights

Resources

• Rock Out Censorship: Dave Marsh's 50 Ways to Fight Censorship
• National Coalition Against Censorship: Organize Locally