Reaching 440 million households, MTV is extremely popular among younger crowds. MTV's target audience is the 12 to 34 set, a demographic which marketers and other media outlets are desperate to woo.

"We entertain them every day and never talk down to them. It also gives us the opportunity to discuss important issues with them," said Norman.

Among those important issues are politics, discrimination, sexuality and sexual health, alleged genocide in Sudan, and the Hurricane Katrina recovery.

"It is our mission at MTV and it is our privilege to focus their revolutionary energy and build tomorrow's leaders," Norman said Thursday, by engaging, educating and empowering youth through activism.

"Leadership has come to mean action," she said, noting that young people are increasingly involved in volunteer projects and civic activism.

The "Real World San Francisco" programs in 1994 allowed cast member Pedro Zamora to become the first openly homosexual and HIV positive character on television, Norman said.

Yoest said MTV is partly responsible for the erosion of traditional family values in America. "Turn on MTV for two seconds and you have to take a bath," she said.

Questions about Duke's stripper crisis have been instructive in unintended ways, and may have provided the tipping point for re-evaluating laws protecting rape victims.

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