The article, which leads off the magazine’s feature section, is titled The XXX-Files: Lobbying For the Porn Industry In a Time of Economic Crisis.
Appearing on parts of three pages, the piece written by Dana Goldstein, covers a lot of ground from the porn bailout requested by Larry Flynt and Joe Francis to the FSC’s lobbying efforts to the use of condoms in porn.
“Like mainstream media companies, the producers of pornographic films and magazines are threatened by piracy, and, above all, by free Internet content,” Goldstein wrote. “In economic terms, porn consumption is ‘elastic’ and thus a poor candidate for raising revenues via taxes: If it costs an extra $5 to rent a smutty DVD, a consumer is likely to stay home and turn off Google’s SafeSearch filter.”
Goldstein also discusses the appointment of “porn friendly” attorney David Ogden to the Justice Department’s No. 2 post. Duke described Ogden as a champion of the adult entertainment industry that has a “genuine respect for the authority of the Constitution,” which the industry wants in order to protect its free speech rights.
Duke goes on to describe her efforts at the state and federal levels as the FSC’s lobbyist now that the organization is no longer working with the Raben Group.
“Protecting our freedoms and civil rights is all we ask,” she said. “When we stigmatize sex, it becomes such a driving political issue. It’s very unfortunate because it ruins something that should be wonderful and beautiful for people.”
The American Prospect is a monthly magazine that reports on liberal issues focused on U.S. politics and public policy. A snippet of the article can be read here.