WRAP, or White Ribbon Against Pornography, is a Religious Right group’s efforts to publicize what it sees as the harms of pornography.
Led by the Morality in Media (MIM), the movement hopes to escalate enforcement of obscenity laws and put behind bars adult entertainment operators like Goldman, who faces a federal jury over an eight-count indictment on obscenity charges.
The group is distributing WRAP ribbons through Sunday and is promoting letter-writing campaigns to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
MIM President Robert Peters said Monday that there is a breakdown over enforcement of hardcore movies, and that he hopes that more adult entertainment operators leave the business altogether.
"While enforcement of obscenity laws is not the whole answer to the pornography problem, vigorous enforcement will put many hardcore pornographers out of business and encourage others to get or stay out,” Peters said. “It will also send the message that pornography is a moral and social evil. Youth especially need to hear this message.”
Peters blamed a fueled-up proliferation of adult material on the Internet for much of today’s societal ills.
"It is clear that the explosion of hardcore pornography on the Internet and elsewhere is fueling this moral crisis,” he said. "The Supreme Court has held that obscenity laws can be enforced against hardcore pornography, and these days most commercially distributed pornography is hardcore.”
Meanwhile, Goldman faces trial tomorrow at U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., over his efforts selling DVDs through TorturePortal.com.
His attorneys claim that the case should be dismissed because FBI agents spent about three years making “controlled buys” of his movies to build their case and that the Justice Department was “forum shopping” to find an indictment.
Goldman, 59, was indicted by a federal grand jury in New Jersey for violating 18 U.S.C. § 1461 and § 1467 for the distribution of “Torture of a Porn Store Girl,” “Defiant Crista Submits” and “Pregnant and Willing” through the mail. The videos all were mailed in 2006 and 2007.
If convicted, Goldman faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 on each of the eight counts charged in the indictment.
