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Morality in Media, Inc. (MIM), now known as the National Center on Sexual Exploitation,[1] is an American, non-profit organization that was established in New York City 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,[2] who is a registered federal lobbyist.[3][4]

History

MIM was launched by an interfaith group of clergy in the Upper East Side 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.[5] They were soon joined by Rev. Constantine Volaitis of the Greek Orthodox Church.

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 A report was submitted in 1970 that said all “adult” obscenity laws should be repealed.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” [6] with another Commission member, Dr. Winfrey Link. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized the Hill-Link minority report in upholding obscenity laws in 1973.

Morality in Media of Massachusetts, Inc. became a reality on April 22, 1971 when its co-founders the Rev. Paul J. Murphy and George T. Ryan filed its Articles of Organization at the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Office. The Rev. Morton Hill contacted Mr. Ryan, a devoted Christian business man for help to establish an affiliate here who in turn reached out to the Rev. Paul J. Murphy and so it began. The following were the original Officers and Directors who wished to initiate, promote, encourage and coordinate activity designed to safeguard and advance public morality ,impeding the sale or other dissemination of salacious or other obscene material, especially for the young and thereby combating family and community deterioration:

President- Rev. Paul J. Murphy, S.J.

Treasurer-George T. Ryan

Clerk, Secretary-Rev. Msgr.Kickham

Directors: Rev. Morton Hill

Henry Sheridan & Warren Murray

Joseph Chevarley

Rev. Msgr. Joseph Donelan

Rev. Myron Powell Boston

 

On February 23, 2012 the MIM website went offline due to an attack by the Anonymous group.[7] 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”.[7]

The group changed its name to the National Center on Sexual Exploitation in 2015.[1]

Activities

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
    • Dirty Dozen—annual list of leading porn facilitators[8][9]
  • The Safe Library Project
  • Be Aware: PORN HARMS National Awareness Campaign
  • White Ribbon Against Pornography week.[10]

Funding

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,[11] and awarded through the DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs.[12]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Brown EN (14 July 2015). “Anti-Porn Summit on Capitol Hill Mixes Moralist, Feminist, and Public Health Rhetoric With Insane Results”. Reason.com.
  2. ↑ “Meet the Staff” at MIM site,
  3. ↑ “Yahoo slammed over porn sites—IT News from”. V3.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-03-05.
  4. ↑ “U.S. Senate: Legislation & Records Home > Public Disclosure > client list index > client list T”. Jcp.senate.gov. 2011-10-13. Retrieved 2012-03-05.
  5. ↑ Morton A. Hill, S.J.: Defender of the Public Decencies at the Morality in Media website.
  6. ↑ “Members Hit Pornography Conclusions”. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. 24 September 1970. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  7. 1 2 “We are under full-scale attack”. Hosted.verticalresponse.com. Retrieved 2012-03-05.
  8. ↑ Oui, Ann. “Morality in Media Names ‘Dirty Dozen’ Facilitators of Porn”. Adult Video News. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
  9. ↑ “MiM Releases 2014 ‘Dirty Dozen’ List of Leading Porn Facilitators”. Adult Video News. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
  10. ↑ White Ribbon Against Pornography week at MIM site
  11. ↑ 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.
  12. ↑ org (Nonprofit website). ObscenityCrimes.org, Morality in Media, Inc. Retrieved on 2007-08-11.

Archives of recognition Morality in Media has received over time.