In this space last September, we mentioned two media sophisticates and their nonchalant take on the pornification of pop culture. In the revolting context of Abu Ghraib, it's easy to see that these arbiters of culture are just plain mistaken in their attitude and that their capitulation to evil indirectly endangers others. Here's what we wrote those nine months ago:

Frank Rich of the New York Times (July 27) declared porn has won the culture wars, and did it with a line that sounds like glee: "We've come a long way baby."

Vinay Menon of the Toronto Star (August 5) said pretty much the same thing and was no less celebratory about it. Listen: "Today, right or wrong, 'adult entertainment' has lost most of [its] depraved veneer. Somehow the explicit has shed the illicit; the marginal has assumed the center. The fornicating freaks are welcome on Main St. Call it 'carnal chic.' Or 'gutter glam.' Or, maybe, 'pop porn.' "

We have come a long way, all right, but the direction has been downward. From Baghdad to Washington and places in between, we've all seen more than enough of Abu Ghraib to know carnal and gutter and porn are just that. There's nothing chic or glam or pop about it.

The American soldiers who sexually humiliated and abused prisoners in their charge at Abu Ghraib disgraced themselves and their country. Whether they acted on their own or on someone's orders, they did it with apparent ease. If we're looking for what went wrong, and how to fix it, we need to think about how those soldiers could have learned to behave as they did. During the years when they were growing up, absorbing the lessons to be had from the world around them, the porn makers in California's San Fernando Valley were enjoying their own hassle-free years of growth under the benign neglect of the Clinton-Reno Justice Department. The pictures these soldiers produced at Abu Ghraib could have come out of porn valley in California. In a real way, they did.

Chicago Tribune arts critic worries that 'shock jocks' will be 'muzzled'

Yet another media sophisticate, "arts critic" Howard Reich, addressed this headline question in the Chicago Tribune of May 16:

SHOCK JOCKS
WILL THEY BE MUZZLED?

"Muzzled" should tell you where he's headed.

A subhead added this:

"With Congress targeting indecency and the FCC handing out record fines, the climate for provocative radio shows is changing dramatically and swiftly"

"Provocative"?

Mr. Reich gives his readers these examples:

"In New York, Howard Stern asks a stripper to unveil her new implants so that he can describe them to his listeners. In Chicago, Mancow Muller discusses naughty sexual practices with a sidekick, Turd. And in Los Angeles, Tom Leykis urges female listeners to flash motorists on the freeway, while he muses on his favorite types of 'boobage.'"

One wonders what Mr. Reich would consider more than merely provocative.

Writing as though the U.S. Congress, a President of the United States, and the U.S. Supreme Court had not previously decided the matter with respect to obscenity, indecency and profanity, Mr. Reich made this absurd statement: "Whether it really is the FCC's task—and, by extension, the government's—to ride herd on radio expression is open to debate."

Where has he been?

Mr. Reich writes that this is the question that needs debating: "[D]oes America really want Stern and his ilk to flee the airwaves, leaving a government controlled radio industry that caters exclusively to particular tastes?"

How's that for spin? Some debate.

Mr. Reich quotes several sources with an opinion on this question, all but one of them answering in the negative. For the lone contrarian, he reports, indecency regulation is a way to keep "shock jocks" from "forcing your immorality on us." Good point, but Mr. Reich brushes it aside: "In truth, however, no one is forcing Smith (David Smith, a long-time critic of "Mancow" Muller) or likeminded listeners to tune in to Mancow, Stern or the other juvenile, potty-mouthed jocks."

Mr. Smith's ability to not listen is irrelevant. Obscene, indecent and profane language are banned on broadcast radio and television under federal law (18 U.S.C. 1464). And enforcement of that law by the Federal Communications Commission was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 1978 in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation. In that case, the Court used this rationale to justify the regulation of broadcast indecency (my paraphrase):

Of all forms of communication, broadcasting has the most limited First Amendment protection. Among the reasons for specially treating indecent broadcasting is the uniquely pervasive presence that medium of expression occupies in the lives of our people. Broadcasts extend into the privacy of the home and it is impossible completely to avoid . . . those that are patently offensive. Broadcasting, moreover, is uniquely accessible to children.

No matter. For Mr. Reich, all of this is "open to debate."

Federal-State-Local agencies go after P2P child porn

More than 65 arrests have been made in the United States since last fall in a coordinated crackdown by federal, state and local agencies on child pornography distributed through peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing computer software. P2P software allows users to connect their computers directly without the use of a central server.

A Justice Department statement dated May 14 said, "The multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional P2P initiative, combining the resources of federal, state and local law enforcement, is part of an ongoing effort to keep pace with emerging technologies that are being used to commit, facilitate and even hide crimes."

FBI Director Robert Mueller said the operation "sends a clear message that the digital environment will not offer [sanctuary] to those pedophiles who lurk in peer-to-peer networks. We will identify you. We will pursue you. We will bring you to justice."

Director Mueller added, "Today's announcement also raises public awareness to the inherent risks associated with file-sharing networks. Parents must know that access to these networks is free and exposure to child pornography is often a frightening reality."

Participating agencies included the Justice Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, U.S. Attorneys' offices across the country, the FBI, Homeland Security's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the 39 state and local Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces.

Family Life Conference to be held in Qatar

The UN has designated 2004 as the Year of the Family. From the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute in New York comes word of an international conference on family life to be held in Doha, Qatar, November 29 and 30, in connection with the Year of the Family. The conference is being sponsored by Her Highness Sheikha Mouza Bint Nasser Al-Misnad, Consort of His Holiness the Emir of Qatar and President of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs, State of Qatar.

C-FAM says, "Qatar hopes to develop the most accurate and comprehensive view of the current worldwide status of marriage and family life, so that participants at the conference, including high-ranking government and civil society leaders, can develop useful strategies for international, regional and national actions on behalf of the family. . . It is anticipated that the outcome document . . . could set the global agenda for international family policy for the next decade. According to the conference organizers, an honest and dispassionate examination of current research will reveal that, in order to promote social stability and sound social development, societies around the world should encourage and strengthen high quality marriage, respect for life, and parental involvement with children. How to achieve these objectives, however, is less clear. Moreover, the overriding goal is the collection of sound and complete scholarship - not ideological argument. The organizing committee, therefore, welcomes and encourages participation by all able academicians and analysts. . .Broad topics for investigation will include the social role of marriage, the development needs of children, the impact of media on family life, governmental policy and the family, the family and human dignity, and historical and global perspectives on the family as "the natural and fundamental group unit of society."

Scholars seeking to place papers with the conference are asked to send abstracts to douglasasylva@c-fam.org. The deadline for abstracts is June 28.

Qatar's commitment to host the conference was welcomed by a UN General Assembly resolution passed last December. The UN resolution also accepted the conference as an official event of the UN's 2004 International Year of the Family.