NEWS RELEASE from MORALITY IN MEDIA, Inc.
NEW YORK (24 November 2003) — Robert Peters, President of Morality in Media, had the following comments in response to Sunday (November 23) evening’s 60 Minutes segment on the hardcore pornography industry:
“Yesterday evening (November 23), the 60 Minutes segment entitled ‘Porn in the U.S. A.‘ provided those who defend the hardcore pornography industry with yet another largely unchallenged opportunity to tell America how profitable, ‘mainstream’ and ‘acceptable’ their business has become, and how difficult if not impossible it now is to enforce obscenity laws based on ‘community standards.’
“To begin with, the 60 Minutes porn segment gave representatives of the hardcore porn industry and a sympathetic author who wrote a book about the explosive increase in obscenity the first half of the segment, with no one to rebut their story. Much if not most of the second segment was also largely devoted to those who promote or defend the industry.
“The 60 Minutes porn segment also couldn’t say enough about how mainstream corporations like Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner, DirecTV, EchoStar, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, and Sheraton now profit from the distribution of hardcore pornography—as if this makes it acceptable.
“To begin with, the secular media is in large measure a business without a moral compass. Much of Corporate America in general also appears to have little to brag about when it comes to balancing the bottom line against the interests of employees, stockholders and communities.
“During the NFL game which aired Sunday on CBS TV, promotions for the upcoming 60 Minutes porn segment also highlighted the unsubstantiated claim that Americans now spend more money on pornography than they do on sports and on Hollywood films.
“To begin with, most sports fans don’t usually pay to watch their favorite sports—they watch it on TV and read about it in the morning newspaper. And most Americans over 35 don’t often pay to view Hollywood films because most films contain offensive content. For many people, viewing hardcore pornography has also become a life-controlling and expensive addiction.
“Thankfully, the 60 Minutes porn segment reported that the U.S. Attorney in Pittsburgh has initiated the first major federal obscenity case in over a decade and that many other federal obscenity investigations are reportedly underway.
“But in the war against obscenity, it would seem that CBS TV’s 60 Minutes, like most of the rest of our nation’s secular media, has put its money and hopes on the hardcore pornographers.”
