Can I Get An Amen?

Editorial: Porn prosecution is a waste of time:

Some citizens of Staunton may not like an adult video store. But it is a legal business.

Staunton Prosecutor Raymond Robertson is wasting time and taxpayers' money pursuing obscenity charges against an adult video store.

Obscenity cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute. Landmark court cases have made the definition of obscenity exceptionally -- and appropriately -- narrow.

To be considered criminally obscene, material must meet several tests, including a lack of any "serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value."

In addition, it must be found to violate contemporary community standards.

The best approach, then, to the opening of After Hours Video in Staunton would have been to leave it alone. If it manages to stay in business, then it obviously isn't violating community standards.

Let me repeat this gem: "If it manages to stay in business, then it obviously isn't violating community standards."

As Steven Colbert would say, let the free market speak.

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Lee Still Awaiting Trial

Gordon Lee, of Gordon Lee's comic shop in Georgia, is scheduled to finally see trial this August.

Lee was busted during Halloween week 2004 for inadvertently passing out at copy of Alternative Comics #2 to a minor. It was one copy out of thousands the shop distributed as part of the town's trick-or-treat event.

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The Definitive Piece On Censorship

Yes, I'm still on my WKRP kick ~ but with such excellence, why not be?

This clip is from the "Clean Up Radio Everywhere" episode, in which the gang discusses media censorship when they face pressure of a "moral" group.

Everything is still true. :sigh:



Funny and sad, but Les sums things up the way many folks (I think) still likely feel:

In a situation like this, I always ask myself, what would my hero Edward R. Murrow think? And I think that Ed would think that this was censorship. Then I think about what my other hero, General George Patton, would think, and I think George would think that radio and television ought to be cleaned up, and if he were alive today, he'd take two armoured cavalry divisions into Hollywood and knock all those liberal pinheads into the Pacific! So as you can see, I'm a very confused man. And when I get confused, I watch TV. Television is never confusing. It's all so simple somehow.

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One To Watch

Fleshbot covers the story (NWS), so I'll just direct you there. But I wanted all you adult business folks to note that the Feds have a 10-count indictment against Max Hardcore (nee Paul Little) for obscenity. It's in U.S. District Court, Tampa Division (Florida), so this is shakier than if in L.A.

Hardcore says, "I've never heard of anyone, even a store owner getting busted for obscenity."

I'm no legal expert, and I can't site all the facts and stats, but I know there's a history in publishing which has ruined many a company. (And if the ruling doesn't kill you, the legal fees may.)

So keep your eyes on this one, folks.

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