For Immediate Release Contact:

David Horowitz
MediaCoalition
212.587.4025

Richard Chernela
Kratz & Jensen Inc.
212.979.2700, ext. 223

SHOOTING THE MESSENGER DEBUNKS LINK
BETWEEN MEDIA VIOLENCE AND REAL VIOLENCE

Report Finds Censorship Will Not Stop Violence

New York, NY, August 24, 2000 – The Media Coalition, a first amendment advocacy organization, announced today the release of a comprehensive survey entitled Shooting the Messenger: Why Censorship Won’t Stop Violence. This first-of-its-kind report analyzes and synthesizes dozens of studies and mountains of statistics, debunking the myth that there is a causal link between violence depicted in the media and real-life violence. The report demonstrates that while research indicates numerous causes for violence, none of them link directly to media violence. The report shatters current assumptions that scapegoat the media for the complicated, multi-faceted causes of violence.

"When violent crimes hit the headlines, people want to lash out at something, anything, and assign blame," said David Horowitz, Executive Director of the Media Coalition. "The media is too often that something, even though, as our report found, there is no causal link between the violent content in the media and real violence."

Responding to the misplaced notion that violence depicted in books, magazines, movies, music, TV and video games causes violence, the report points out that during the 1990s, media, as well as access to media, has proliferated across the United States. Simultaneously, however, violent crime has fallen to its lowest level in nearly 30 years.

Shooting the Messenger is divided into four main sections. The first, "The Social Science: Studies Don’t Support the Conclusion that Media Cause Real-Life Violence," reviews a wide range of current studies, digging beneath the surface to demonstrate that the supporting evidence is inconclusive at best. This section also notes that even research linking media with violent content to an increase in aggressive play, such as children’s wrestling, as opposed to actual violence, is contradictory.

"How Not to Stop Violence," the second section, finds that neither content regulation nor censoring of youth are effective methods of preventing violence. In a look back, Shooting the Messenger acknowledges that every generation has sought to protect its children from "corrupting culture." The report cites a wide variety of examples, from half-dime novels that the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice called "traps for the young" to an essay in a 1914 issue of The Atlantic, claiming that the film and publishing industries were creating a generation sophisticated in sin.

The third section, "The Real Causes of Violence and Crime," reviews the multiplicity of interrelated social, cultural, familial and cognitive factors that can lead to violence, including family dysfunction, poverty, genetics, and failure to communicate.

Shooting the Messenger wraps up with information on "How to Help Kids be Smart Media Consumers." The report points out that parents can and should teach their children to view media critically so they understand the messages behind what they view and how to apply these messages to their value systems. Recommendations include encouraging adult guidance, heeding voluntary media ratings and teaching media literacy.

"Media do not reach children in a vacuum," Horowitz said. "Children process the messages they receive in the context of their value systems. By giving children the tools they need to understand what they are seeing and hearing, parents can help their children absorb a wide range of media and messages consistent with the positive values taught by parents, teachers and peers."

The report concludes that the answer for problems created by speech is more speech, not censorship.

"Censorship cannot eliminate evil - it can only kill freedom," Horowitz said.

Single copies of "Shooting the Messenger" are available free of charge by writing to the address below or visiting www.mediacoalition.org. Multiple copies of the report are available for a nominal fee of $1.00/report and can be ordered by contacting