Word: niemi
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...persuaded a jury to award $50,000 to a woman who claimed that the trauma of a cable-car crash had turned her into a nymphomaniac. But never did Lewis come up with a more novel argument-or one with more profound implications-than in the case of Olivia Niemi...
...leaves a banana peel lying on his front stoop where someone could slip on it, should pay damages to the victim. Constitutional Lawyer Abrams, on the other hand, argued that his clients should be held liable only if the network actually intended to cause attacks like the one on Niemi...
...violence or writers who portray it in fiction. Yet NBC has been justly criticized for airing Born Innocent at 8 p.m., when many impressionable youngsters can be expected to tune in. Editorialized the Washington Post, "One still feels a sense of dissatisfaction here, as the true justice of Miss Niemi's case seems to hang somewhere between her suffering and the Tightness and necessity of the First Amendment." The courts may not be the proper place to resolve it, but the controversy over violence on TV simmers...
...case raises two compelling−and competing−concerns. In support of Niemi, the California Medical Association cited copious evidence that TV contributes to violence, including a study commissioned by ABC in which 22 of 100 juvenile offenders confessed to having borrowed criminal techniques from television. But some psychologists argue that violent programs provide a vicarious release for aggression. The networks and some First Amendment scholars fear that Niemi's suit, if successful, will drastically undermine constitutional free speech guarantees. "I would regard it a very dangerous principle that would hold a broadcaster or a publisher liable...
...contends that the First Amendment should be an absolute bar to the Niemi suit. But the California Court of Appeal disagreed, ruling that Niemi was entitled to a jury trial. Last week the high court refused to review the decision. In doing so, the court was making no judgment on the merits; apparently it simply wanted to hold off until the case runs its course in the California courts. But whether in this case or another, the Justices someday will have to decide just how much the First Amendment protects publishers and broadcasters when life contagiously imitates...