NEW YORK — Morality in Media, an organization that has waged an ongoing campaign to censor porn, has issued a press release intended to discredit the recent efforts of the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP).
ASACP earlier this week sent a letter to Congress and state Attorney Generals offering a counterpoint to the anti-porn, phone-in and letter-writing campaign that is part of the “War on Pornography” being orchestrated by special interest groups such as MIM. The groups are demanding Internet censorship and Congressional interference with Constitutionally-protected speech.
ASACP CEO Joan Irvine said that proactive measures continue to be needed to provide a balanced view of the issues surrounding the legitimate adult entertainment industry, and the need to keep children away from adult-oriented materials.
In the Morality in Media press release, CEO Patrick Trueman says that ASACP states that Congress "does not need to prosecute illegal adult producers and distributors under existing laws because they are not involved in obscenity."
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” suggested Trueman, the former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Criminal Division.
The press release goes on to state that, "Today, hardcore Internet pornography is the lifeblood of the porn industry and should be prosecuted under U.S. obscenity laws."
“Many of the very groups that are part of ASACP are the ones responsible for giving the children of America unfettered access to hardcore obscene pornography on their websites," Morality in Media claims in its release.
It continues, "Under the tenure of Attorney General [Eric] Holder, no illegal adult pornographers have been indicted and the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force in DOJ's Criminal Division has been shut down. These actions caused U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Reps. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C., and Randy Forbes, R-VA. to circulate a letter for signatures in Congress urging U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to enforce existing obscenity laws. The Coalition for the War on Illegal Pornography has been working to get signatures on the letter."
Trueman added, “As a result of these efforts, Congress has been flooded with a groundswell of public outcry regarding the lack of obscenity law enforcement, with more than a quarter million people asking their elected officials to sign this letter."
“We will see which side our elected officials take on this matter now that they’ve been solicited by the pornography industry for support. ... We’re simply asking for the enforcement of existing obscenity laws which would shut down most of the hardcore pornography available today on the Internet.”
ASACP's Irvine on Friday addressed the MIM response to her organization's endeavors.
"I wrote the letter talking about ASACP and what the industry is doing — providing truth and documentation," Irvine told XBIZ. "I was really surprised that their reaction was a personal attack against ASACP and myself. I’m very hurt because I’ve devoted eight-and-a-half years of my life to protecting children and ASACP has been protecting children for the past 15 years now.
"We dealt with reality and statistics in the letter and they responded with a personal attack."