Administration wages war on pornography

Baltimore Sun via Drudgereport ^ | 06 Apr 04 | Laura Sullivan

[AreaMan]

Administration wages war on pornography

Obscenity: For the first time in 10 years, the U.S. government is spending millions to file charges across the country.

By Laura Sullivan Sun National Staff

April 6, 2004

WASHINGTON - Lam Nguyen's job is to sit for hours in a chilly, quiet room devoid of any color but gray and look at pornography. This job, which Nguyen does earnestly from 9 to 5, surrounded by a half-dozen other "computer forensic specialists" like him, has become the focal point of the Justice Department's operation to rid the world of porn.

In this field office in Washington, 32 prosecutors, investigators and a handful of FBI agents are spending millions of dollars to bring anti-obscenity cases to courthouses across the country for the first time in 10 years. Nothing is off limits, they warn, even soft-core cable programs such as HBO's long-running Real Sex or the adult movies widely offered in guestrooms of major hotel chains.

[AntiGuv]

Lam Nguyen's job is to sit for hours in a chilly, quiet room devoid of any color but gray and look at pornography.

I could handle that. Wonder how much it pays..

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[annyokie]

Free? Heck, I'm not working.

[onedoug]

Ban all porn made before 1970, and after 1980.

[Sir Valentino]

Read it and *WEEP*, liberals! Conservatives will not *STAND* for the further degradation of American *VALUES*!

[wingnutx]

why does the 70's get an exemption?

[AntiGuv]

An example of what? Customers aren't violating the law unless it's kiddie porn.

[windcliff]

Because porn in the 70's at least had some acting and storylines.

[AntiGuv]

On second thought, I shouldn't have made such a blanket statement because there are other instances of consumers subject to prosecution. A better statement would be that nothing I do would provide a very good example.

[onedoug]

Terri Hall!

Did you ever see Boogie Nights?

"I'm not a pornographer. I'm a filmmaker!"

An interesting retelling of The Prodigal Son.

The Story of Joanna and The Taking of Christina are fascinating cinema. Really.

Only for married couples, though....

[French-American Republican]

What counts as obscenity? Isn't all porn basically the same thing? What type of stuff would make one porn film obscene and the other one not?

[wingnutx]

Some more recent stuff has very high production values and plotlines. Or so I hear.

[NJ_gent]

"An example of what? Customers aren't violating the law unless it's kiddie porn."

They're using vaguely worded obscenity laws to target anyone they think they can get. I've seen HBO's "Real Sex" late night show, and if they're targeting that, they're willing to hit just about anything. Real Sex isn't far off (content-wise) from the popular, long-running show Sex and the City, which I believe recently ended.

I think this type of activity by the police is wasteful, unnecessary, and likely to lead to a large number of obscenity laws being struck down as unconstitutionally vague. In the end, the only thing really accomplished is that a bunch of tax dollars go down the drain.

[AntiGuv]

If the average person applying contemporary community standards would reasonably find it offensive, then it is obscene. I'm guessing none of these suits will be filed in California.....

[AntiGuv]

I agree with you 100%. They are almost begging for Miller v California to get reversed.

[French-American Republican]

But if you say one's obscene, aren't all of them? All porn films consist of almost no dialogue and... you know.

[NJ_gent]

"What counts as obscenity? Isn't all porn basically the same thing? What type of stuff would make one porn film obscene and the other one not?"

The Supreme Court has ruled that local communities may decide for themselves what constitutes obscene material. What might be legal on one part of the country, may be illegal in another. There is no national standard for obscenity, other than the obvious laws against child pornography, beastiality, etc. As for what might put something "over the line" in a given community, that could range from just about nothing being obscene, to anything beyond nudity being obscene. I'm not aware of a situation where a local community's obscenity law has been cut down by a court for being too restrictive, though it may have happened.

[AntiGuv]

Actually, there have been several struck down, most notably the Communications Decency Act of 1996. A lot of them on the state & municipal level are around simply because they haven't been enforced in a very long time.