Posted on 06/19/2009 6:16:44 PM PDT by Steelfish
FBI Files Reveal Wide 'Deep Throat' Investigation
Newly released FBI files show agents across the country and at the highest level of the agency investigated "Deep Throat" -- the 1972 porn movie, not the shadowy Watergate figure -- in a vain attempt to roll back what became a cultural shift toward more permissive entertainment.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Newly released FBI files show agents across the country and at the highest level of the agency investigated "Deep Throat" -- the 1972 porn movie, not the shadowy Watergate figure -- in a vain attempt to roll back what became a cultural shift toward more permissive entertainment.
The documents released to The Associated Press show the expanse of agents' investigation into the film: seizing copies of the movie, having negatives analyzed in labs and interviewing everyone from actors and producers to messengers who delivered reels to theaters.
All of it in a failed attempt to stop the spread of a movie that some saw as the victory of a cultural and sexual revolution and others saw as simply decadent.
"Today we can't imagine authorities at any level of government -- local, state or federal -- being involved in obscenity prosecutions of this kind," said Mark Weiner, a constitutional law professor and legal historian at Rutgers-Newark School of Law.
"The story of 'Deep Throat' is the story of the last gasp of the forces lined up against the cultural and sexual revolution and it is the advent of the entry of pornography into the mainstream."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I thought this was about Brian William-Obama interview.
That's one mild way to describe the triumph of depravity!
“.....and it is the advent of the entry of pornography into the mainstream.”
They make this sound like a good thing.
I miss the old FBI! If they were doing today what they did back then, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Murtha, Byrd, and a bunch of others would be on trial for corruption.
If sitting around watching the movie over and over is an “investigation”, I can believe it. Too bad the real FBI of yesteryear is no longer with us. We might have some respect for the government’s view of the rule of law if we did.
"Today we can't imagine authorities at any level of government -- local, state or federal -- being involved in obscenity prosecutions of this kind," said Mark Weiner, a constitutional law professor and legal historian at Rutgers-Newark School of Law. "The story of 'Deep Throat' is the story of the last gasp of the forces lined up against the cultural and sexual revolution and it is the advent of the entry of pornography into the mainstream."
From Lenny Bruce to Deep Throat marks the transition of the country in terms of the war of the sexual revolution and what was regarded permissible and protected as free expression.
The article also begs the question whether we as a society want the FBI to be so intensely investigating dirty movies. If as professor Weiner suggests this was a skirmish in the cultural war over pornography, actually a decisive battle in the sexual revolution, do we want the federal government to be fighting these wars? Do we want the feds to be taking sides? Is it inevitable that the federal government must take sides?
Today we have the specter of the federal government involving itself in another battle in the sexual revolution, this time the war over homosexual sex. The freedom of expression aspect of this arises as the Government attempts to pass hate crime laws which could have the effect of criminalizing criticism of homosexual sex. Is it necessary for the government to intrude itself into this battle? Was it a good thing for the FBI to be investigating the sexual aspects of "Deep Throat" especially without finding any organized crime aspects to it? Is it a good thing for the federal government to make laws telling us how we must discuss the issue of homosexual sex?
Many freepers, I know, will want the federal government to suppress dirty movies but the same Freepers are also likely to want the federal government to refrain from affecting their rights to freely express their opposition to homosexual sex. How do they feel about the oppression of the rights of free expression of Lenny Bruce?
And in 1972, Bill Clinton was just a young man of 26 when he got a brilliant idea while watching this movie. “First, I’ll become President and then...”
“First, I’ll become President and then...”
‘I shall experience cabin daggering.’
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