JOMC 144 Censorship
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Syllabus

Aug. 21 & 23
Introduction to the Course

  1. Students' definition of censorship
  2. Students as individuals:
    The Merchant of Venice, Oedipus Rex, and "The King of Siam"
  3. Mnemonically challenged professor's determination to know students facilitated by pictures of students
  4. Statement on course's academic discipline
  5. Three theories of teaching: Paulo Freire's dialogic process; the Socratic dialectic; the didactic authority
  6. No sacred cows - irreverence without mordacity - L.A. Freeway
  7. Your responsibility for everything (including words) in the syllabus
  8. Quiz on the "three dirtiest words" and a BAN on one word
  9. Demographic, personal preferences and ethics survey
  10. "20 Questions" - How many can you answer?
  11. 5-minute scenes from video, Cyrano de Bergerac

Aug. 28 & 20, Sept. 4

  1. August 28: First Assignment Due
  2. How to get an "A" (Melodic philosopher Aretha's advice)
  3. Discussion of the three dirtiest words and the one word in the English language that should be banned. George Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words"
  4. Lecture on Censorship:
    Three types: Prior restraint, ex post facto punishment and contemporary expurgation
  5. "The Phrasisphobia of Censorship: Burakumin & Niggers"
  6. A discussion: "What is Critical Thinking?" (my handout)

Sept. 6 to 20 (Five periods of lecture)
(Five periods of Lectures)

  1. Sept. 6: Video on "Censorship"
  2. Give out group assignments for class presentations for Third Assignment due: October 25, October 30, November 1. (no class on Oct. 23 - meet with your groups)
  3. A twofold overview lecture of censorship:
    a. John Stuart Mill's three positions in On Liberty
    b. political correctness
  4. Professor Stone's 12 Theories of Censorship

    • Changing social values (The Starr Report; Mrs. Stone's first bathing suit (1918) and her bikini (1958))
    • JND theory of pornography
    • Thucidydean and Anne Murray:
      The cyclical theory of history -
      the evolution v. creationism controversy (Scopes trial, 1923)
    • reciprocity of censorship
      (Paramount Pictures v. Variety and Variety editor's concurrence of censorship.
      Is D.H. Lawrence's
      example different?)
    • gender determinant (Read Deborah Tanner's article from CHE)
    • self-censorship (Ice-T)
    • required (or forced) expression of speech (Edwards vs. Aguillard, 1987)
    • economics of censorship (Howard Stern)
    • slippery slope (Milton and Niemoeller)
    • the right not to speak (West Va. Board of Education vs. Barnett (1943))
    • the line of constitutional crossability
    • the inviolability of good taste

  5. Is "political correctness" a form of censorship?
    "The Mythology of Political Correctness" (and WGAD - Who gives a damn?)
  6. Is "multiculturalism a form of censorship? For whom?
  7. Balancing the equities: Free speech vs. fair trial symbiosis (First Amendment vs Sixth Amendment), free speech vs. Mill's "harm principle" (the Dworkin-MacKinnon ordinance as a proposed adoption)
  8. People for the American Way's Annual Report: "Attacks on the Freedom to Learn"; Censorship in the 50 states from 1986 to 2000.

Sept. 25 & 27, Oct. 2, 4, 9 & 11

The Constitution, the Law and the Supreme Court
(See 21 Supreme Court Cases)

Introductory lecture based on two books:
Rabban, David, Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years
Semonche, John E., Keeping the Faith: A Cultural History of the Supreme Court

I. What Speech is Not Protected?

1. "Low value speech"

  • Subversive Advocacy
    (Conflicting decisions of Schenck v. U.S. ("clear and present danger") &
    Gitlow v. N.Y.)
  • Defamation and libel (private vs. public figures)
  • Obscenity and pornography, Indecency
    (George Carlin's "Seven dirty words") and profanity. From Roth vs. U.S., 1957 and Jacobellis vs. Ohio, 1964 (Potter Stewart's obiter dictum) to Miller v. California, 1973 (The LAPS test) and American booksellers v. Hudnut, 1985, Judge Easterbrook's brilliant decision affirmed by U.S. Supreme Court. The feminist spectrum on pornography from Camille Paglia, Sallie Tisdale and Naomi Wolf to Christina Hoff Sommers, Kate Millett and the advocates of an anti-pornography ordinance, Andrea Dworkin and Catherine MacKinnon.
  • Offensive (profanity) (Cohen v. California, 1971) and
    Indecency (FCC v. Pacific, 1978)
  • "Fighting Words" (Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 1942)
  • Hate Speech Aggravation. Should it be a crime? (See court decisions) Mill's dichotomy between speech and "the instigation of some mischevious act." Examples: Yitzakh Rabin assassination, Harlem fire-bombing of Jewish-owned store; Abortion doctor's murder. See A.R. Hunt: "Verbal Violence Begets Physical Violence."
    Query: Can the verbal violence-physical violence etiology be applied to the Dworkin-MacKinnon thesis that pornography begets rape?

2. "Restricted Environment"

  • Military, prisons and public schools
    In schools:
    a. prayer, religious displays, aid to education, child benefit test and display of ten commandments
    b. Freedom of Speech: From Tinker to Bethel to Hazelwood

3. Cyberporn

  • Should it be controlled? Supreme Court 9-0 decision, Reno v. ACLU, June 26, 1997. Supreme Court says "no".

4. Libel (lecture)

  • Libel and law of defamation: publication, identification, fault (public vs. private persons), injury and damages.
  • Defenses vs. mitigating circumstances
  • Judge Sofaer's threefold taxonomy in Sharon v. Time.
  • C. Delores Tucker's lawsuit against Tupac Shakur's estate
    Invasion of Privacy, Lecture (AP Style Book and Fedler)

5. Child Pornography

  • A higher education? N.Y. v. Ferber,1982
  • High School students and First Amendment Rights
    From Tinker(Fortas) to Bethel(Burger) to Hazelwood(White)

Oct. 16

Video, "Damned in the USA"

***FALL BREAK WED. OCT. 17 - MON. OCT. 22***

Oct. 23 & 25

Constitutionally Protected Free Speech and Freedom of the Press

  • Coverage of pre-trial proceedings (Nebraska, 1976)
  • Academic Freedom, e.g, the teaching of evolution (Epperson, 1968)
  • Private possesion of obscene literature (Stanley, 1969)
  • The right of reply to a newspaper's editorial; (Miami Herald vs Tornillo, 1974. Compare to "fairness doctrine" upheld in Red Lion Broadcasting vs. FCC, 1969)
  • Displaying or uttering profane four-letter words
    Cohen vs. California, 1971 vis-a-vis "fighting words" standard, Chaplinsky v. N.H., 1942
  • The Gangsta Rap Controversy (Should gangsta rap be banned? Does rap encourage violence? References: Roberts, Don, Rap to Live By: Positive Rap for Kids on Love, Friendship, Self-Esteem, School, Money, Sex, etc.)
  • The "Unholy Alliances" (Conservative Republicans and Black Women Democrats); (Washington Post article: "The Dubious Porn Alliance")
  • Two lower court decisions that influenced the Roth case. Ulysses and Lady Chatterly's Lover. (See Judge Woolsey's scholarly eloquence in his decision in the Ulysses case)
  • Query: Are yesterday's offensive words today's humor?
    Jeff Foxworthy's "You might be a Redneck if....";
    "Short People"; "Skinny Legs"; "Smack My Bitch Up";
    TV: "South Park" and Jerry Springer

Nov. 6

Lecture on Global Censorship

Debate on the Fairness Doctrine and the Equal Opportunities Act. The first has been abolished. Should the second be abolished, too?

Nov. 8

Debate on the Fairness Doctrine and Equal Opportunities Act. The first has been abolished. Should the second one be abolished too?

Fourth Assignment Due on Nov. 15. Submit two TYPED - I repeat - TYPED ideas for your final paper. Topic and title (typed). See list of 135 titles of final papers.

Nov. 13

Lecture: "The 'Isms' of Multiculturalism - a Dirty Word for Diversity: (Pro and Con)"

Nov. 15

  • Lecture on the Bible and its Historical Account of Humankind's frailties, particularly, in the persistent recurrence of egregiously sinful behavior.
  • The Bible (A thirteen-fold taxonomy): as the Word of God, the Creation, divinely inspired prophecy, theology, philosophy, apocalypse, a moral code for living, history of a people, sociology, ethnocentrism, canonical literature, revolution and pornography.
  • Hand in two typed ideas for final paper.
  • A one-page outline of your proposed final paper due: Nov. 20

Nov. 20

  • Lecture on Lying and "Your Cheatin' Heart"
  • A one-page outline of your proposed final paper due today.
  • Lecture, Two Videos and Recordings
    Query: Are Yesterday's offensive words today's humor?
    Video: Jeff Foxworthy's "You Might Be a Redneck If..."
    Songs: "Short People"; "Skinny Legs"; "Stop 'N Go"
    Video: Smack My Bitch Up
    TV: "South Park" and Jerry Springer
  • Censorship in Television, Newspapers, Movies, Videos and Concerts, especially rap concerts
  • "A picture is worth a thousand words" (and the censor's power, unfortunately, is worth just as much)
  • An examination of controversial pictures published in newspapers
  • Movies:
    Are the ratings a form of censorship?
    What purpose do ratings serve?
    Are they effective?
    Should ratings be maintained for underage children?
  • What do you think-
    Do denunciations or picketing by religious, ethnic, gender and other groups affect the public's support or rejection of a movie?
  • Examples of Marginality of Freedom of Speech:
    1. David Horowitz's paid advertisement in college newspapers on Reparations that offended black students.
    2. Graphic pictures of dead fetuses that pro-life students exhibited in the pit that offended pro-choice students.
  • Television and Radio: Is there any difference between the ratings of the movies and the FCC controlling programs that are suitable for children and adults?
  • Are the FCC and each television network office of standards that previews programs for offensive material the same thing?
    a. The full-page advertisement in the Janruay 10, 1993, New York Times - "We Are Outraged!"- by the American Family Association headed by Reverend Donald Wildmon
  • A Few Thoughts on Government and Military Censorship
    • Outside of national security concerns, are the executive and legislative branches of government limited in their right to censor reports of their activities which they fund and consider pornographic?
    • Who has the constitutional standing to challenge those limits?
    • How are those challenges enforced?
    • In the interest of national security, does the government have a moral right to lie to the people? (Can you site specific circumstances either historical or current?)
    • Do the people have a constitutional "right to know?"
    • Military: If the First Amendment ordains "Congress shall make no law prohibiting freedom of speech or the free exercise thereof" does the military's censorship of its war activities amount to a form of censorship?

Nov. 27 & 29, Dec. 4

NO CLASS, WORK ON FINAL PAPERS

Professor Stone will be in his office both days, all day for individual appointments.

DECEMBER 4 - FINAL PAPER DUE BY 12:00 MIDNIGHT

Dec. 6 - LAST DAY OF CLASS

ATTENDANCE IS A MUST - An unexcused absence will result in a one-grade devaluation

* Return of Final Papers: If students want their final papers (with comments) returned, please attached a self-addressed, TYPED envelope. We'll take care of the postage. Otherwise, papers will not be retained after the end of the semester.

The Last Lecture

  • "Style, Substance and Superiority,These Three - and the Greatest of These is Style"
  • Fill out the evaluation form for JOMC 144 and Professor Stone