they feel it benefits the nation.There are also a great number of people who disagree with this, but in order to format your own opinion about censorship, some information needs to be known. Censorship affects books, newspapers, magazines, movies, radio and television programs, speeches, music, and various other arts. Governments and private groups take advantage of censorship when they feel threatened by free expression. Every society, including the United States, has used censorship when the leaders felt it would be beneficial to the nation or themselves. (Censorship, 345) There are four main types of censorship: moral, political, military, and religious. Moral censorship is the most common, as well as the most controversial. Moral censorship occurs when a specific person or group feels it can force its ideas and beliefs on others. An example of moral censorship is the practice of banning books. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain (also known as Samuel Clemmons), is one of the many books that have been challenged or banned. Many schools because of its language challenged twains book. The book uses such language as nigger, which is a word used to describe a person of African-American descent. The piece of literature is thought of as being racially offensive, degrading, insensitive, and oppressive, despite that at the time it was written, nigger was not considered to be an inappropriate word. This writer believes that such literature as that written by Mark Twain should not be changed to accommodate todays beliefs. Music is another form of entertainment that is greatly changed. Music censorship has been going on since the early fifties. In 1953, six counties in South Carolina passed a law, which made it illegal to play a jukebox within the hearing distance of a church (A brief1950s, 1). This act was just the tip of the iceberg so to say, of a controversy that still exists today. Censorship in ...
