A View From Riverside Drive

Commentary by Ed Hynes
January 2010

‘Buttman’ loses challenge to obscenity law

John “Buttman” Stagliano, “the father of gonzo porn,” was indicted for obscenity violations by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. in April 2008 and may finally go to trial some time in 2010.  His lawyers tried to have the case thrown out on the grounds that federal obscenity laws are unconstitutional, but Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled against them December 22.

The motion to dismiss contended, first, that the obscenity laws are too vague to govern Internet speech, and, second, that the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas – that state laws banning sodomy were unconstitutional – created a right to "sexual privacy," and thus a right to own and distribute sexually explicit material.

Mr. Stagliano is charged with operating an obscenity distribution business and related offenses. Also charged are his two production companies, Evil Angel Productions and John Stagliano, Inc., both of Van Nuys, California. If convicted, he could get up to five years in prison on each of eight counts in the indictment and his company could be penalized up to $250,000 on each count. 

Judge Leon also indicated he would consider allowing defense lawyers to file an immediate (pre-trial) appeal of his ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. 

This will be interesting.  The Supreme Court has already ruled that obscenity is not protected speech under the First Amendment and that federal laws that ban the distribution of obscene material are constitutional.  The mere possession of obscenity is not against federal law.  Mr. Stagliano is charged with distributing the stuff.  What’s the issue?    

Flash:  Child porn offenders also molest children!

The December 11 edition of Monitor on Psychology, the journal of the American Psychological Association (www.apa.org/monitor), reports on a study “suggesting that men charged with Internet child pornography offenses and those who commit hands-on child sex offenses are, in many cases, one and the same.”

It seems ludicrous that it took two highly qualified clinical psychologists to get at the truth most people would understand intuitively.  But clinical documentation is a good thing.

Michael Bourke, PhD, Chief Psychologist of the U.S. Marshals Service, and Andres Hernandez, PsyD, did the study at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, N.C., from 2002 to 2005. 

They analyzed data on 155 men convicted of possessing, receiving or distributing Internet-based child pornography.  The men were in an 18-month program of intensive therapy, during which they “filled out assessment measures including a ‘victims list,’” Monitor on Psychology reported.  The men “revealed the number, though typically not the identity, of children they had sexually molested in the past.”

By the end of their treatment, “85 percent [of the men] had admitted they had sexually molested a child at least once, with an average of 13.5 victims per offender.”

Here’s a point the psychologists didn’t mention: Child porn users ordinarily start out using adult pornography.

Phoenix police arrest two for pimping teen runaways

The Phoenix Sun November 28 reported the arrest of two men accused of “pimping teen runaways” as young as 15.  The story ran under this headline: “87-count sex-crime indictment unveiled against 2.”

The Sun found, “They were the latest of a handful of men, including two school employees, arrested this month in separate cases on suspicion of targeting juveniles for sex.”  The arrests were part of an “ongoing struggle to curb prostitution, pornography and other sexual exploitation of children” in and around Phoenix. 

More than 20 prostitutes have been murdered in the Phoenix area in the last ten years, according to the paper.

Dolce & Gabanna ad uses ‘upper class’ alley cats to sell its line

Dolce & Gabanna, the Milan-based clothing manufacturer and retailer, calls itself ‘an eclectic and contemporary brand, the expression of a changing world.”  Let’s hope they’re wrong about the world. 

D&G sells watches as well as clothing.  Its television ads for the watches are “edgy,” to put it mildly.  The latest portrays “an upper-class ménage a trois.”  How alley cat behavior – even “upper class” alley cat behavior – sells watches or clothing is anyone’s guess.  But D&G thinks it does, which says a thing or two about the company and its assessment of people in the market for what it sells. 

A company news release describes the ad this way:  “A luxurious period apartment in Paris is the set for a malicious mademoiselle who abandons herself to provocative games, ending in an upper-class ménage a trois.  The risqué situation is interrupted by her rigorous mother, shocked at the sight of such an impudent display.”

More signs of the iTunes times

As we mentioned last fall, Apple has begun selling pictures of naked women for the iPhone at its online iTunes store.  Some of this material is available free of charge to children and adults, along with links to more explicit pornographic web sites. 

Apple has withdrawn some offensive material recently in response to protests from the public, and may do so again.  Patrick Trueman informs us that Apple can be reached at http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html.   A short form at that site lists several choices for “feedback type.”  Click on ‘Enhancement Request.’   That leads to an opportunity to leave a message.  We left this:  “Selling, and giving away, pornographic apps, and linking to porn sites, contributes to the growing notion that alley cat behavior is okay for humans.  It's a notion that can only hurt all of us.  Stop what you're doing, please.”

You might have a better idea.  Easily.  Go for it.

Pat adds this:  “If you prefer to call, and I hope many will, here is a telephone for Apple Public Relations (408) 974-2042 press ‘0’ and ask for ‘customer relations.’)  I just called and talked to a shocked operator who had no knowledge that Apple was supporting pornography.” 

Sex doesn’t sell movies

There’s reason to hope that prurience has not overtaken our better instincts quite yet. 

Movieguide Magazine (www.movieguide.org) has been telling its readers for years that box office earnings show people prefer humor, adventure and suspense in movies and television rather than gun violence, physical conflict and sex.    Now a professor at the University of California at Davis has come to much the same conclusion, based on his study of more than 900 films released between 2001 and 2005.  Dean Keith Simonton, a professor of psychology at UC Davis and a co-author of the study, told CNN December 29, “Sex did not sell, whether in the domestic or international box office.”

Cardinal Rigali to porn addicts:  ‘Do not be discouraged!’

Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia has again spoken out forcefully against what he calls “the terrible scourge of pornography.”

Writing in the November 22 edition of The Catholic Standard & Times, the Archdiocesan newspaper, he compared this scourge to others in the history of mankind’s struggles with evil, and added, “We know that the unfortunate reality of pornographic images is nothing new. . . .  What makes pornography the particular scourge of our own time is its availability. . . .  The public act of purchase has been replaced by the privacy of one’s own home. . . . The temptation has not changed but its availability has changed drastically.”

The Cardinal had words of encouragement for “those who may be addicted to pornography or who find themselves having recourse to it.  My message is: Do not become discouraged!  Do not think that you are a horrible person or that God will not forgive you.”

He mentioned the work of Morality in Media, as he has in the past.   “There are many groups and organizations which have banded together to fight pornography and its devastating effects. ‘Morality in Media’ (www.moralityinmedia.org) is one organization which has recently published a thorough study of the pornography industry and its effects.”  

The Cardinal asked pastors and assistant pastors to support the annual White Ribbon Against Pornography (WRAP) campaign developed by Morality in Media, and to call upon their parishioners to lobby for enforcement of the obscenity laws.

A story elsewhere in the paper reported that members of the King’s Men, an apostolate of Catholic laymen, distributed WRAP material outside Philadelphia City Hall October 23, at the start of WRAP week.

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