LOS ANGELES — The Free Speech Coalition this evening noted that the San Jose Mercury News, the second largest newspaper in California, has published an editorial excoriating Proposition 60.
The paper’s editorial board called the upcoming ballot measure “daft,” for the “porn czar” provision giving proponent Michael Weinstein the power to overrule the attorney general — and encourages voters strongly to Vote No on 60.
In the editorial, titled “Vote no condom measure Prop 60,” the Mercury News board pulled no punches — “How bad is Prop 60? In a rare display of unity, California’s Democratic Party and Republican Party are opposed.”
“Prop 60 is the brainchild of Michael Weinstein, CEO of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation,” the editorial said. “He’s often described as uncompromising and dictatorial, and let’s just say he brought both those qualities to Prop 60.
“Weinstein is setting himself up as the state’s porn czar, apparently for life. He could only be ousted “by a majority vote of each house of the Legislature when ‘good cause’ exists to do so.” Funny, there’s no provision for the governor, Legislature or voters to name a successor if Weinstein is removed by the Legislature.”
Eric Paul Leue, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition who leads Californians Against Worker Harassment, said: “The problems with this law have been apparent from day one, for anyone who reads beyond the headline.”
“It gives one misguided man the power to control the lives and livelihoods of thousands of adult industry workers, and creates a digital mob to sue, harass, attack those who work in this industry, even a married couple filming from their own home,” Leue said. “Under Prop 60, the entire production chain is liable, from performers and producers to retailers and cable companies.”
The Mercury News Group, which publishes over two dozen papers in California, also published the editorial in the East Bay Times.
The full editorial can be read here.
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