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The command is forward : selections from addresses on the motion picture industry in war and peace (1944)

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10 THE COMMAND IS FORWARD tively to a consideration of the function of the motion picture in wartime in a democracy. The Function of the Motion Picture in Wartime in a Democracy The motion picture is both a medium of communication and an art. Its function is therefore a dual one. As a medium of communication, the screen may appropriately claim the right to report and discuss the facts subject only to the limitation in wartime which the dictates of military necessity and national safety may impose. I am speaking, of course, of the newsreel and the documentary which, today, the framers of our Bill of Rights would unquestionably bracket with other media entitled to freedom of expression. This freedom to communicate facts, to report events and discuss them, carries with it a commensurate responsibility to report accurately and discuss fairly. As a potent medium of communication, with a weekly audience of 80 to 90 million, the American motion picture screen is rendering vital service to the government in the war effort by showing war information in specially produced motion picture trailers and shor subjects. (See Appendix 1.) The industry volunteered to render this service, and today is producing and distributing these war information films without cost to the government and is placing them upon fourteen thousand screens within twenty-four weeks,