[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 12830]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                     TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF COURT TV

 Mr. SMITH of New Hampshire. Mr. President, this month marks 
the 10th anniversary of Court TV, which has played a crucial role in 
educating the public about our nation's criminal justice system. When 
Court TV went on the air in July of 1991, about nine out of ten 
Americans had never seen a trial. Now ten years later, Court TV has 
aired more than 732 trials nationally and provides more than 60 million 
households with the opportunity to watch trials--as well as other 
criminal justice-related programming--on a daily basis.
  During those years, Court TV has provided the Nation with an 
extraordinary civics lesson, enabling Americans to see their own 
criminal justice system first-hand. Viewers have seen some of the 
nation's finest judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys at work and 
have watched the judicial process unfold--with the benefit of expert 
commentators and analysts. As part of that civics lesson, Court TV has 
enabled viewers to watch live trial coverage--for the first time ever--
of cases involving such issues as, among other things: appellate 
arguments, breach of contract, jury selection, libel, medical 
malpractice, negligence, parole hearings, product liability, and even 
war crimes.
  Mr. President, Court TV has also made a special commitment to helping 
reduce youth violence. Its public affairs initiative, ``Choices and 
Consequences,'' has received the cable television industry's highest 
public service award, the Golden Beacon Award, for its efforts to keep 
our Nation's children out of our Nation's courts. A middle school 
curriculum, based on trial coverage of cases involving youth offenders, 
has been provided to more than 10,000 schools. A new high school 
curriculum, which addresses bullying among other issues, is now 
available online and through Court TV's ``Cable in the Classroom'' 
feed. Cable television operators in more than 50 cities in 24 states, 
plus the District of Columbia, have also partnered with Court TV in 
supporting ``Your Town'' town meetings, which have addressed a wide 
range of issues affecting adolescents and have been aired nationally.
  Earlier this year, Court TV chairman and CEO Henry Schleiff was 
honored to be joined by the Speaker of the U.S. House of 
Representatives, J. Dennis Hastert, as well as Minority Leader Richard 
Gephardt and our colleague, Senator Sam Brownback, among other 
Congressional leaders, in announcing a new ``media literacy'' campaign 
designed to help students distinguished between the positive and 
negative images that they see in all forms of media--and to help them 
understand the consequences of actions in the real world that may seem 
inconsequential onscreen.
  Court TV offers a unique mix of programming, including trial coverage 
by day and compelling stories of the criminal justice system in the 
evening. That mix has now made Court TV the fastest-growing basic cable 
network in the nation. Its growth is testament to the fact that high-
quality programming can be both educational and entertaining.
  Today, I am pleased to recognize the important contribution that 
Court TV has made to public understanding of the judicial branch of 
Government and to criminal justice issues more broadly, and we applaud 
and encourage its continued efforts to work with our nation's schools 
to reduce youth violence and help students understand that choices made 
in a moment can have consequences for a lifetime.

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