A View from Riverside Drive
Commentary by Ed Hynes
November 2004
Moral issues help carry President Bush to victory
The 2004 Presidential election turned decisively on moral issues as much as it did on anything except, perhaps, national security.
None of the other hot buttons—including jobs and the economy, Iraq, social security, health care, and education—was hotter than the cluster of moral issues that include gay "marriage," abortion, the destruction of human embryos for medical experimentation, and the proliferation of obscene hardcore pornography, especially on the Internet.
Moral issues were so strong a factor that they helped President Bush win re-election in spite of bad news on jobs and Iraq.
In the exit polls on election day, large numbers of voters made clear that the defense of traditional moral values was at or very near the top of their concerns.
Our own polling at Morality in Media through Wirthlin Worldwide has shown repeatedly that eight out of ten adult Americans want the obscenity laws to be vigorously enforced.
Will the President now put the federal government back to work vigorously enforcing the federal obscenity laws? He had a mixed record on the enforcement of obscenity laws during his first term. While real progress was made, the floodtide of obscenity pouring into our nation's communities and homes, especially through the Internet, in large measure continues unabated.
An urgent need to enforce federal obscenity laws has been building since 1993, when President Clinton took office and then failed to fulfill his campaign promise to enforce federal obscenity laws.
There was so little obscenity law enforcement under the Clinton/Janet Reno Justice Department that Adult Video News endorsed Mr. Clinton for reelection in 1996, and by 1998 the paper was ecstatic, reporting that, "The adult industry's numbers have increased nearly 100% in five years. With a more relaxed Justice Department, some retailers felt free not only to carry but also to market adult product." That story ran under this headline: "IT'S A GREAT TIME TO BE AN ADULT RETAILER."
And now it's time for President Bush to do something about it. He won by more than 3.5 million votes, and Republicans enlarged their majority control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. He has a mandate.
Adult porn racketeers put the Big Lie* to work
Hardcore adult pornographers just love child pornography. The fact that such evil exists makes it possible for them to pose as good guys who are strongly against "kiddie porn." They're trying to sell the big lie that their version of evil is legal and only child pornography is against the law. Most people aren't buying it, but some are.
In one especially egregious case, the January 14, 2003, issue of Newsweek reported with a straight face that a group calling itself Adult Sites Against Child Pornography (ASACP) "will soon start reviewing their members' sites and—if no child porn is found—bestow what [Joan] Irvine [of ASACP] calls a 'Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval' so visitors know there's nothing illegal on the site."
Newsweek's credulity—if that's what it was—in publishing this fiction has no place in serious journalism.
* In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler described the Big Lie idea he used in the Nazi takeover of Germany and the run up to World War Two: "The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed… Something always remains and sticks from the most impudent lies, a fact which all bodies and individuals concerned with the art of lying in this world know only too well, and hence they stop at nothing to achieve this end."
Getting the story straight in the heartland
The Omaha World-Herald got it right in a story August 29 about a man accused of molesting and videotaping sex acts with several teenage boys after he showed them adult pornography. The story provided this important piece of background: "Studies show that molesters may give adult pornography to potential victims to loosen their inhibitions before trying to seduce them." The reporter and editors at this paper out there in the heartland made a key point that Newsweek did not appreciate or chose to ignore.
'Morbid sexual obsession' linked to some of the Juarez murders
In a series of unsolved crimes over ten years, several hundred women and girls have been murdered and dumped in the desert around Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, at the Texas border. The New York Times bureau in Mexico City reported on October 25 that a Mexican federal investigation found that a third of the 155 deaths that have been looked at so far "involved rape or appeared to be the work of someone with a morbid sexual obsession."
Amnesty International's report on the crimes, in August 2003, titled "Intolerable Killings: Ten years of abductions and murders in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua," included this reference to illegal pornography:
There is talk of the involvement of drug traffickers, organized crime, of people living in the United States, as well as rumours that those responsible are being protected. There are also theories about the motives being connected with Satanism, the illegal trade in pornographic films and the alleged trafficking of organs.
There's a wealth of evidence of the causal connection between illegal hardcore pornography and violent crime. The epicenter of illegal pornographic film production and distribution is in the San Fernando Valley of California, where sexual violence and humiliation done to women and girls is celebrated in thousands of films each year. "Morbid sexual obsession" is a natural byproduct of these toxic products.
For the health and safety of people in Mexico as well as the United States, putting the porn racketeers out of business through vigorous enforcement of the obscenity laws should be the first priority of police and prosecutors in the U.S.
Churches need to help congregants with pornography
In The Arizona Republic of September 17, reporter Michael Clancy wrote that religious leaders in that state "want churches to wake up and take a key role in helping their congregants fight the effects of pornography, but they say many churches either are unaware of the extent of the problem or don't know what to do about it."
He quotes one pastor as saying, "The solution goes back to values, and people get their values from faith organizations. Secular life is foundering on this front. It really comes back to the churches."
Another pastor said dealing with pornography is "embarrassing, it's complicated. Pastors feel unequipped to deal with it, and we like comfort, not confrontation, when we go to church." But he added, "I want to provide these services in a church environment where they belong."
A psychologist told Mr. Clancy, "This is not discussed in school, at church or in the home. We have a deluge of pornography and a vacuum of places to talk about it."
The article mentions a few sources of potential help, including Promise Keepers, Sexaholics Anonymous, and the book, Every Man's Battle: Winning the War on Sexual Temptation One Victory at a Time, by Fred Stoeker and Stephen Arterburn (Waterbrook Press). The book is listed at several places on the Internet, including epinions.com, where it shares a page with several "other products": Sex Toys and More, Swingers Adult Vacations, Nude Organic Lubricant and eXPansive Breast Enhancer. This grouping either seemed logical to the people at epinions, or it struck them as amusing. Which tells you something about the people at epinions.
Sheriff in Utah orders deputies to document porn found at crime scenes
The Kansas City Star carried good news out of Logan, Utah, on October 17. The sheriff's department in Cache County, Utah, "is requiring deputies to begin documenting pornography found at crime scenes and during arrests." A spokesman for the department "said that although no connection between legal porn viewing and criminal behavior has ever been proven, police have seen a steady increase in porn associated with crimes."
Ever alert to the slippery slope possibilities, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union said, "It's one thing to collect evidence to crimes, but it's another thing to link thought and association to crime."
But, of course, there is a connection between pornography and violent sex crimes. See the article, The Link Between Pornography and Violent Sex Crimes.
What to do about 'life as we know it'
Brent Bozell of the Media Research Institute always has something worthwhile to say about the perils of watching television, especially for children. He watches a lot of TV, for which he deserves a medal and much thanks from the rest of us. His comments on October 29 described "an ABC show pretentiously titled 'life as we know it,' with no capitalization."
He writes, "The show centers around three teenage boys: Dino, Ben and Jonathan. To give us a clue about how low this show sinks, the series begins with Dino and Ben harassing Jonathan into a scenario where 'you have to sleep with one of these two people'—Mom or Dad. To say the series goes downhill from there is almost inconceivable—but it does."
For example, one of the boys and his teacher have a passionate encounter in a janitor's closet, where she pulls down his trousers and produces a condom, holding it in her teeth and smiling lecherously.
What to do about this? Mr. Bozell suggests we all "thank" the sponsors.
They include Radio Shack, Minute Maid and Papa John's.
Here's how to reach them:
Papa John's International, Inc.
John Schnatter, President, Chairman and CEO
2002 Papa John's Blvd.
Louisville, KY 40299-2334
502-261-7272
Papa John's customer comment page
RadioShack Corp.
Leonard H. Roberts, Chairman and CEO
100 Throckmorton St., Suite 1800
Fort Worth, TX 76102
817-415-3700
Radio Shack customer comment page
The Minute Maid Company
P.O. Box 2079
Houston, TX 77252-2079
1.888.884.8952
Minute Maid customer comment page