Stop Censorship

Stop Censorship

SPECIFIC GOAL: I want my audience to step up and stop censorship.

INTRODUCTION

I. (Attention getter): How are you all doing tonight? We have a problem! A problem that some of us don't even know exist. I beg you all to pay attention to your surrounding. The life we live today is in jeopardy. What we do today, or better yet what we don't do can have detrimental results in due time.

II. (Credibility statement): I have researched this topic a great deal. You might

not know it by name. But this topic affects all of us sitting in this room. We

can not continue to ignore this issue.

III. THESIS: Today I am going to make you aware of the topic of censorship. I want

you to not support government agencies and politicians that support censorship.

BODY

I. (first main point) the first amendment of the Bill of Rights states: Congress shall

make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise

thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of press; or the right of people

peaceably to assemble, and petition the government for a redress of grievances.

A. It seems to me that this is a very clear statement that has been written in stone.

Who has the right to change the Bill of Rights? Last time I checked no one had the

right to do this.

B. The first amendment guaruntess the liberty of freedom of speech and press. So

why is this an issue? What if Dr. King was not allowed to speak out

against slavery? What if the press was not allowed to cover the Million Man

March? Where would we be today? I am sure glad I don't have the answer to that

question.

Transitional Statement: What exactly am I talking about? You might be wondering to yourself.

II. (Second main point) Censorship is the use of governmental power to control speech

and other forms of human expression.

A. It is most commonly applied to acts which occur in public

circumstances, and generally involves a suppression of them by criminalizing

their expression. What is censored may range from specific words to entire

concepts, and the motive is to stabilize or improve the society over which the

government has control.

B. Sanitization (removal) and whitewashing (from whitewash) are almost

interchangeable terms that refer to a particular from of censorship via omission,

which seeks to "clean up" the portrayal of particular issues and facts which are

already known, but which may conflict with the official point view. Political

correctness may also become a form of self-censorship. This is usually the type

of censorship the media falls into.

Transitional Statement: There are many different forms of censorship.

III. (Third main point) Censorship explicit vs. implicit

A. Censorship can be explicit, as in laws passed to prevent select positions from

being published or propagated.

B. Censorship can also be implicit, taking form of intimidation by government,

where people are afraid to express or support certain opinions for fear of losing

their lives, their jobs, their position in society, or their credibility.

Transition Statement: