Morality in Media
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Morality in Media, Inc. (MIM) is an American, faith-based, non-profit organization that was established in New York in 1962. MIM seeks to raise awareness about what they regard as the harms of pornography and other forms of obscenity to individuals, families and society. MIM also works through constitutional means to curb traffic in material they consider obscene and uphold what they view as Judeo-Christian standards of decency in media. The president is Patrick A. Trueman,[1] who is a registered federal lobbyist.[2][3]
Contents
Founding[edit]
MIM was launched by an interfaith group of clergy in the Upper Eastside of Manhattan (NYC) in 1962 after grade school children were caught with hardcore pornography. MIM was first formed by Father Morton A. Hill, Rabbi Julius Neumann, and Rev. Robert Wiltenburg (a Lutheran pastor) as a neighborhood organization under the name Operation Yorkville.[4] They were soon joined by Rev. Constantine Volaitis of the Greek Orthodox Church.
Hill-Link minority report[edit]
In 1968, Hill (president of MIM until his death in 1985) was appointed to serve on the President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography by President Lyndon B. Johnson. A report was submitted in 1970 that said all "adult" obscenity laws should be repealed. Hill co-authored a minority report describing the Commission's report as a "Magna Carta for the pornographers" [5] with another Commission member, Dr. Winfrey Link. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized the Hill-Link minority report in upholding obscenity laws in 1973.
Activities[edit]
MIM's current campaigns include:
- The Coalition for the War on Illegal Pornography—a bipartisan coalition of more than 115 national, state and local groups.
- Pornography Harms
- The Safe Library Project
- Be Aware: PORN HARMS National Awareness Campaign
- White Ribbon Against Pornography week.[8]
Funding[edit]
Annual U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) grants of $150,000 in the 2005 and 2006 federal budgets funded MIM's review of citizen-generated obscenity complaints submitted to MIM's ObscenityCrimes.org website. 67,000 of the complaints deemed legitimate under the program had resulted in no obscenity prosecutions as of August 2007. The grants were created by Congressional earmarks by U.S. Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia,[9] and awarded through the DOJ's Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs.[10]
Website closures[edit]
On February 23, 2012 the MIM website went offline due to an attack by the Anonymous group.[11] Shortly after that, MIM president and CEO Patrick Trueman released a statement stating that MIM was in contact with the FBI and claiming that the site had been under "a heavy sustained attack by pornography advocates".[11]
As of 8:45 CDT, October 5, 2012, the website (which had been hacked to lead to a porn website) was down entirely; it was repaired by October 8, although some former links had to be re-written and relocated.
References[edit]
- ^ "Meet the Staff" at MIM site,
- ^ "Yahoo slammed over porn sites—IT News from". V3.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-03-05.
- ^ "U.S. Senate: Legislation & Records Home > Public Disclosure > client list index > client list T". Jcp.senate.gov. 2011-10-13. Retrieved 2012-03-05.
- ^ Fr. Morton A. Hill, S.J.: Defender of the Public Decencies at the Morality in Media website.
- ^ "Members Hit Pornography Conclusions". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. 24 September 1970. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
- ^ Oui, Ann. "Morality in Media Names ‘Dirty Dozen’ Facilitators of Porn". Adult Video News. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
- ^ Staff. "MiM Releases 2014 ‘Dirty Dozen’ List of Leading Porn Facilitators". Adult Video News. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
- ^ White Ribbon Against Pornography week at MIM site
- ^ Lewis, Neil A. Federal Effort on Web Obscenity Shows Few Results New York Times, via nytimes.com, 2007-08-10. Retrieved on 2007-08-11.
- ^ ObscenityCrimes.org (Nonprofit website). ObscenityCrimes.org, Morality in Media, Inc. Retrieved on 2007-08-11.
- ^ a b "We are under full-scale attack". Hosted.verticalresponse.com. Retrieved 2012-03-05.
External links[edit]
- Morality in Media official website.
