FC: PBS will air special "American Porn" show on Feb. 7

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Press release follows. --Declan]

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AMERICAN PORN
PBS Airdate: Thursday, February 7, 9 P.M., 60 minutes

It's one of the hottest industries in America.
Easier to order at home than a pizza, bigger than rock music, it's
arguably
the most profitable enterprise in cyberspace.  AT&T is in the
business.
Yahoo! has profited from it.  Westin and Marriott make more money
selling it
than they do snacks and drinks in their mini-bars.  And with estimates
as
high as $10 billion a year, it boasts the kind of earnings every
American
business envies.
        It's pornography-and with adult movies, magazines, retail stores, and
the
growth of the Internet-business is booming.  But the leaders of the
adult
industry are worried.  They see the election of George W. Bush and his
appointment of John Ashscroft as a signal that there may be renewed
interest
in mounting obscenity prosecutions.
On Thursday, February 7, at 9 P.M. on PBS (check local listings),
FRONTLINE
reports on the forces behind the recent explosion of sexually explicit
material available in American society and investigates the pending
political battle that may soon engulf the multibillion dollar
pornography
industry.  The report contains explicit images and explicit sexual
language.
PBS will air strong viewer advisories throughout the broadcast.
        "Once the rules were clear: if pornography offended the community
standard
of decency, it was obscene.  But the digital age and a political
moment
changed all that," says FRONTLINE producer/director Michael Kirk.  "In
a
wired world who can say what offends a community?  That's the question
about
to be asked of juries all over the country.  On their answer rides
billions
of dollars and the fate of American porn."
In "American Porn," FRONTLINE goes inside some of the most successful
pornography businesses-Larry Flynt's Hustler organization and popular
Internet site Danni's Hard Drive-to see how their profits have
exploded in
the past few years.  According to Flynt, Hustler's enterprise-a
conglomerate
of movies, strip clubs, sex shops, and the Internet-is worth $400
million.
Danni Ashe, a former exotic dancer turned dot-com millionaire and CEO,
tells
FRONTLINE she earned $8 million last year alone.
While most Americans decry the avalanche of sexually explicit
material, the
profits speak for themselves.  Large numbers of Americans are finding
something they like in the adult entertainment arena.  Both Flynt and
Ashe
credit the 1990s explosion of adult material to the ease of viewing
and
ordering from the Internet.  Equally important, they say, was the
Clinton
administration's laid-back attitude toward pornography.
"I think the adult entertainment business has experienced a lot of
freedom
in the last eight years," Ashe says.
Pornography producer Mark Cromer agrees.  "When Clinton came in," he
says,
"it was definitely blue skies and green lights."
        So much so, some former Justice Department officials say, that
Corporate
America felt it was safe to enter the profitable porn market.
        "Companies like AT&T bought up a cable company, signed contracts with
the
Hot Network, which is a hard-core pornographic site," Patrick Trueman
tells
FRONTLINE.  The former head of the Justice Department's obscenity
section in
the Reagan and Bush administrations, Trueman now represents the
American
Family Association, a non-profit organization promoting traditional
family
values.
"Other mainstream companies thought that 'We can do this, too,'" he
says.
"And why not?  There's a big market and no penalty."
        Former Justice Department attorney Bruce Taylor concurs.  "If there
had
been continued federal prosecutions [for obscenity], you wouldn't see
the
Internet presence of the porn syndicate as big as it is today," says
Taylor,
who maintains he has prosecuted more obscenity cases than anyone in
U.S.
history.  "The combination of the industry's willingness to go on the
Web in
a big way and the prosecutors not indicting them for it allowed it to
explode beyond anybody's imagination."
Former Clinton Attorney General Janet Reno tells FRONTLINE that
obscenity
prosecutions simply weren't high on her priority list.  "I suppose
somebody
could decide to use all their resources for obscenity prosecutions,"
says
Reno.  "It seems to me clearly that national security and human life
free of
violence are two very important priorities."
But times are changing.  Clinton is out, Bush is in, and porn moguls
are
nervous.  What's more, these former Justice Department prosecutors are
encouraging the Bush administration to launch a new attack on the porn
industry-including its silent, white-collar corporate distributors.
In an
attempt to head off an anti-porn government crackdown, the top adult
entertainment executives have created a list of twenty-one pornography
no-no's.  Dubbed the "Cambria List" after its drafter, First Amendment
attorney and legendary pornographer defense counsel Paul Cambria, the
list
warns porn producers against showing such acts as bestiality,
urination, and
facial ejaculation.
Some in the industry, like producer Rob Black of Extreme Associates,
insist
they will continue to test the limits, despite the Cambria List.
"We're
known for all the taboo stuff that everyone said you can't do, and we
do
it," Black says.  Other pornography producers are concerned that the
very
pioneers of the business are selling out in order to appear
mainstream.
"It's a bunch of rich guys running scared," producer Mark Cromer tells
FRONTLINE.  "It's a bunch of guys who were, maybe, rebels in the 1970s
and
1980s and don't want to fight anymore.  They want to take their chips
out of
the bank and cash them in and go home and play golf."
But big pornographers aren't the only ones concerned.  Some mainstream
companies have become wary as well.  Yahoo!, for example, withdrew its
bid
to open a virtual sex shop following an anti-porn campaign waged by
the
American Family Association.
Whether the big distributors of pornography will also be affected is
unknown.  Until now, companies like AT&T have argued they are like the
post
office-delivering material people have ordered.  They claim they are
meeting
a popular demand and see nothing illegal or wrong in what they are
doing.
But the U.S. Supreme Court may soon arrive at new standards for
obscenity
that could challenge these assumptions.
And in Los Angeles, city attorneys are about to bring the first
obscenity
case since 1993 before a jury.  "Somebody has to stand up for the
community.
I have to at least allow them to see this is what's going on," says
deputy
LA city attorney Deborah Sanchez.  "Do you think that this is
acceptable to
your community?  And if a jury tells me 'yes,' then so be it.  If they
tell
me 'no,' then let's see where that really goes."
Following the broadcast, access the "American Porn" Web site at
www.pbs.org/frontline for more on this report, including:

* A quiz highlighting the various standards of what is pornographic as
defined by the porn industry, U.S. Supreme Court rulings, federal
obscenity
laws, and Hollywood;

* A collection of the best writings, essays, and legal arguments for
and
against pornography;

* Articles on the economics of the adult entertainment business,
technology's impact, and a look at the workers in the sex industry;

* FRONTLINE's extended interviews, statistics, facts, and more.


        "American Porn" is a FRONTLINE co-production with the Kirk
Documentary
Group.  The producer and director is Michael Kirk. The co-producer is
Jim
Gilmore.  The correspondent is Peter J. Boyer.  The writers are
Michael Kirk
and Peter J. Boyer.
        FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on
PBS.
        Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers.
National sponsorship is provided by EarthLink(r) and NPR (r).
        FRONTLINE is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers.
        The executive producer for FRONTLINE is David Fanning.

Press contacts:
Erin Martin Kane [erin_martin_kane () wgbh org]         (617) 300-3500
Chris Kelly [chris_kelly () wgbh org]



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