Media Law Raps!

A few years ago, Andrew Cook, one of my Media Law students, shared with me rap songs he had written to help study for the Media Law final exam. I have his permission to share them with my classes.

I hope you find them helpful as you study for Exam 3!

I was blown away by the creativity of this effort by Andrew Cook, who graciously granted permission for me to share his lyrics here! It makes me happy to read over these lyrics again. :)

A big shout out to Andrew, not only for his creativity, but also for sharing this with his classmates before the exam, and now with me. I hope you enjoy it! My favorite has to be the one on obscenity, of course! But, really, they are all great!

Now, courtesy of Andrew Cook:

Obscenities

How do we know if something is obscene,

indecent, violent, or otherwise unclean?

I'll tell you how- you use the Miller Test

to determine if the 1st amendment protects

the content in question must be that which

the average person deems offensive. If it depicts

sexual or excretory activities

[or any other such undesirable qualities]

Or if it lacks serious value specifically

political, artistic, scientific, or literary,

If the content in question matches any one of these things

Then you can bet your ass that shit's obscene.

Indecencies

A shout out to law students across the nation

regarding the FCC vs Pacifica Foundation

case involving comedian George Carlin

where a father and his boy were drivin' a car when

they turned on the radio and what did they hear?

Comedian George Carlin yelling indecencies in their ears

The father complained about all the fucked up shit

Carlan said on the radio in front of his kid

He sicked the FCC on the radio show

because he didn't think kids should know

the" Filthy Words" that Carlin used

and the Supreme Court was forced to choose

whether or not that shit was indecent.

They ruled 5 to 4 for with the reason

that Carlin's act was in fact indecent,
but not an obcenity. It's important to make this destinction.

As a result of this landmark case

indecent material only airs late

at night when children go to sleep

we can hear explicit content without them motherfuckin bleeps.

Internet regulation

Let me tell you about Reno vs the ACLU,

the first internet related Supreme Court issue.

The American Civil Liberties Union tried to pass

what they called the Communications Decency Act

The name may sound noble but that's a load of crap.

It was supposed to protect minors from pornography

or anyone under the age of 18.

Instead it targeted civil liberties-

paved the way for attacks on our privacy.

After a brief deliberation by the justiCEES

It's unconstitutionality was declared unanimously.

  Similarly in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition

the USSC struck down 2 overly broad provisions

within the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996

that would have otherwise given lawful speech limits.

 

Video Games

This next case resulted in a clear victory

for video gamers and for free speech

In Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association

The USSC entered deliberation

on whether or not video games would be protected

by the first amendment and they eventually elected

in a 9-0 ruling it was plain to see

that video games were protected speech.

Libel 

Next on my list is Gertz v Welch

I'm starting the libel chapter in case you couldn't tell.

This case established a defense to defamation

for private individuals in varied situations

where they did nothing to seek public figure status elevation.

Gertz was such- a private individual

hired on behalf of a grieving family in a suit of the civil

variety that had lost their son to a crooked cop

but even after the verdict the pain don't stop,

it doesn't matter if he was guilty or not.

Gertz was dragged into the public eye.

Allegations were made that he was a communist spy.

Accusations which Gertz had no effective way to deny.

The article was published in the American Opinion

filled with libel, defamation and ad hominem

It accused Gertz of fronting for communists,

of framing cops and other crimes he did not commit.

Gertz filed suit to pay for damages,

for people's loss of confidence

in his credibility and unknowingly
he set precedent for vicitms of defemation

to avenge themselves by receiving due compensation.

The court ruled that Welch had infringed

on the private-figure status of a citizen.

With a majority lead justice Powell did proceed

to make a distinction between publicity and privacy

the former having more resources to clear up controversy

than the average man or woman trying to live privately.

Therefore the burden of responsibility

to prove libel should be held to a lower standard of scrutiny

for plaintiffs in cases involving breach of their privacy.