Guest Post by Morbo
As the Carpetbagger noted on Wednesday, the FBI has announced yet another crack down on pornography. I know I’ll be sleeping better at night.
That’s right. At a time when fighting the “war on terror” is supposedly our nation’s top priority, the FBI is forming a special anti-smut squad. Staffers for the new unit are being recruited right now. Noted The Washington Post:
Early last month, the bureau’s Washington Field Office began recruiting for a new anti-obscenity squad. Attached to the job posting was a July 29 Electronic Communication from FBI headquarters to all 56 field offices, describing the initiative as “one of the top priorities” of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and, by extension, of “the Director.” That would be FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III.
We can’t completely blame Gonzalez and Mueller for this one. They are acting under a congressional mandate. And the Republican Congress, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Religious Right, is acting under a mandate from insane television preachers, ‘beat-your-kids-for-Jesus guru James Dobson and uptight Southern Baptists.
I should note that this new thrust has noting to do with ongoing efforts to stop kiddie porn, vile stuff that really is a menace. No, the new porn crackdown is aimed at the material consenting adults take in. I’m sure a lot of it is very raunchy. The Post story noted that special emphasis would be placed on material featuring “bestiality, urination, defecation, as well sadistic and masochistic behavior.” Still, I have to question why even 10 agents are being assigned to this task.
I know it bothers religious conservatives, but the plain truth is that Americans like porn, and Big Business knows that. By some accounts, porn is a $12 billion yearly industry. My suspicion is that its popularity cuts across theological and political lines. There simply are not enough immoral, godless secular humanists in the country to support an industry that large. They must be getting some help from conservatives — and not just the libertarians.
The great irony is it’s the GOP’s business allies that are major purveyors of porn these days and have helped mainstream it. Stayed in a fancy hotel lately? Take a look at the offerings over the closed-circuit TV system. The last time I was in a Sheraton, I was offered the chance to watch lovely young girls frolic in a film that was described as “not much plot, just lots of sex.” (I declined. Honestly.)
Like it or not, corporate America has made the stuff mainstream. As The Post story pointed out, “Explicit sexual entertainment is a profit center for companies including General Motors Corp. and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. (the two major owners of DirecTV), Time Warner Inc. and the Sheraton, Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt hotel chains.”
Christian conservatives might also be surprised to learn that there is this thing called the worldwide web where, so I am told, you can pretty much find all the porn you want, in just about any conceivable expression, 24/7. This medium has proven notoriously difficult to police, even by totalitarian states. (But wouldn’t Dr. Dobson of Focus on the Fascism love to try! He’d probably have to look at all that icky material first just to make sure it was truly naughty. Afterwards, someone might have to “dare to discipline” him.)
My guess is that in the end, some guy somewhere marketing some weird form of porn that serves a niche audience will be prosecuted in the middle of Alabama for violating “community standards” and shut down. His business will promptly be taken over by shady characters in Belarus and become internet-based. Meanwhile, the Fortune 500 companies that have mainstreamed this stuff and beamed it into fancy hotels all over America won’t feel even one tiny blast of heat.
Can somebody explain to me why this is a good idea?