Robert W. Peters

Advisory Board

Robert W. Peters is president of Morality in Media, Inc., a nonprofit organization founded in New York City in 1962 to combat obscenity and uphold standards of decency in the media.

During his 14 years as president, Mr. Peters has been a speaker and lecturer at numerous conferences, debates, seminars and other events sponsored by pro-family and religious organizations, colleges and law schools, and professional societies. He has written articles for various publications and has been interviewed by local, national and international print media, including newspapers such as: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Chicago Tribune, The Dallas Morning News, Detroit Free Press, Los Angeles Times, The Miami Herald, The New York Times, New York’s Daily News and Newsday, New York Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post and USA Today.

Mr. Peters has also appeared on numerous television shows such as: CNN’s “Larry King Live” and CNN Headline News' "Glen Beck;" Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes” and “The O'Reilly Factor”; MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” and “Scarborough Country;” PBS’ “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer”; ABC Evening News and “PrimeTime”; CBS Evening News and “48 Hours”; and NBC Nightly News and “Today” show; and been interviewed on hundreds of local and national radio programs and by nationally syndicated radio news networks.

Mr. Peters is the author of “It Will Take more than Parental use of Filtering Software to Protect Children from Pornography on the Internet” (31 N.Y. University School of Law Review of Law & Social Change 829, 2007); “Once Again, U.S. Supreme Court Thinks It Knows Better Than Congress” (Spring 2005 issue of NEXUS: A Journal of Opinion, Chapman University School of Law); "'Marketplace of Ideas' or Anarchy: What Will Cyberspace Become?" (Spring 2000 issue of the Mercer Law Review); and "Information Superhighway or Technological Sewer: What Will It Be?" (December 1994 issue of the Federal Communications Law Journal).

A graduate of New York University School of Law, Mr. Peters joined Morality in Media in 1985 as a staff attorney and in two years was named Assistant Director of the National Obscenity Law Center, a project of Morality in Media that serves as a clearinghouse in obscenity law. He was appointed President of Morality in Media in 1992.

Mr. Peters has drafted state and local obscenity and related laws and testified before state and local legislative bodies. He has prepared official Comments to the FCC on the subjects of broadcast indecency and the TV ratings and testified at a public hearing of the FCC on the subject of TV violence. Mr. Peters has also authored amicus curiae briefs for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court in support of federal Laws regulating indecent material on broadcast and cable TV and by means of telephone ("dial-a-porn") and computer.

Mr. Peters has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in support of the Pornography Victims Compensation Act, and in 1992 Congress enacted legislation, patterned in part after a proposal submitted by Mr. Peters, to address the problem of indecent programming on cable TV leased access channels. In June 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 1992 law. In 2003, the U.S. Senate enacted Senate Concurrent Resolution 77, which Mr. Peters proposed and drafted. Resolution 77 expresses the will of Congress that “the Federal obscenity laws should be vigorously enforced throughout the United States.”

Mr. Peters was born in LaSalle, Illinois in 1949 and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1971. While at Dartmouth, he co-captained Dartmouth's 1970 undefeated football team and also spent a semester teaching at a Catholic elementary and high school that served Clarksdale, Mississippi’s black community. He graduated from New York University School of Law in 1975 and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1976. Following law school, Mr. Peters spent a year representing indigent tenants in Manhattan’s landlord-tenant court and later worked in a non-legal capacity with a New York City nonprofit organization to curb the decline in morality. For this work, he received an Effective Citizenship Award from John Cardinal O'Connor for translating "concern for the welfare of children into effective action on their behalf."