Dennis RomeroThe Bush years saw the prosecution of such porn luminaries as Ira Isaacs (who was sentenced to 48 months in January), John “Buttman” Stagliano, who got off, so to speak, and former journalist Max Hardcore, who served time in federal prison for making stuff that's fairly common now.
They were dark days for the adult industry. All were charged with obscenity, a crime with a fine line that's sometimes hard to prove. A conservative group, Morality in Media, wants to bring those days back:
The organization is calling out U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for failing to prosecute adult producers for their allegedly obscene ways.
In a statement sent to the Weekly and other outlets, the group wonders if Holder is a porn aficionado, so to speak:
U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder's staunch refusal to enforce federal laws prohibiting hardcore, obscene pornography raises the question of whether he is in bed with the porn industry.
Credit: Obscene? evilangel.com
While we'd agree that the Bush era represented a darker clime for freedom of expression, the group might have a point: Some of today's adult fare makes Max Hardcore look like a Cinemax producer.
Whether or not that means it's obscene by contemporary community standards is another issue, however. Bush's U.S. attorneys used a trick of having smut delivered to conservative jurisdictions where prosecution would be easier.
Morality in Media says hardcore porn is like a gateway drug to deviant behavior, and so it has started a campaign to lobby Holder to be bolder about his views on adult video.
The group's president, Patrick A. Trueman:
Consumption of hardcore adult pornography leads to sex-trafficking, increased child pornography, violence against women and a host of other ills. It is essential that Attorney General Holder enforce current laws to protect children and women. Porn users cannot distinguish between trafficked women, prostitutes, and porn stars. Hardcore adult content fuels the global sex trade by driving up demand, with many viewers seeking to act out what they have seen.
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