The report, titled “Addicted to Porn: How Members of Congress Benefit from Pornography,” focuses on contributions from mainstream companies that quietly deal in adult entertainment to 11 members of the House of Representatives and four different senators. It will be released Thursday morning at the Washington-based press conference, and will be accompanied by discussions from CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan and industry attorney Frederick Lane.
“Legislators are trying to have their cake and eat it too,” Lane told XBiz. “They want their political contributions, but they also want the moral support from opposing pornography.”
Naomi Salinger, deputy director of CREW, did not want to release names of the congressinal members included in the report before it was made public.
If CREW examined vocal opponents to the adult entertainment industry, there's a good chance they may have at least investigated Senator Sam Brownback, who has lead a campaign against the industry both inside and out of the political arena in recent months.
While any inclusion of Brownback in Crew's report has not been made public, an XBiz investigation into Brownback campaign contributions turned up nearly $10,000 in contributions from General Motors, which makes nearly $200 million a year off pay-per-view sex films through its DirecTV subsidiary, and around $7,500 from Comcast Communications.
“Hypocritical does not begin to describe members of Congress who vilify pornography, call for decency standards and then turn around and fill their campaign coffers with contributions from corporations and executives profiting from pornography,” said CREW’s Sloan. “Our report, Addicted to Porn, will expose those Congressional members that choose to accept contributions from sources that profit from the very material they are railing against.”
Lane extrapolated on the idea behind the report, explaining that it was more than simply checking out who made contributions to whom.
“Basically, the group took a look at the names of legislators who are at the forefront of the effort to stamp out indecency and then took a look at where they get their money,” said Lane. “Then, they took a look at those groups and people who are contributing to see exactly who they are, where they work and what they control and have their fingers in.”
The press conference will be held Thursday, March 10, at 11 a.m. in the second floor conference room at 11 Dupont Circle, Washington D.C.
