Sunday, May 02, 2004

Shut it Down or Give it A Seal of Approval?

The New York Times seems to be taking up a new cause.  The adult film industry.  The paper of record’s concern with the current HIV revelations within the industry, has spurred them to action, and this morning they have posted two op-eds.  The first one I link to is written by Jonathon A. Knee (is that his real name?), of Columbia Business School. Knee appears to want to shut the industry down, or wield the law and the enforcers, as this proposal from his op-ed illustrates.

"What we need is a kind of regulation that does not implicate the First Amendment at all — yet goes to the heart of the enterprises that fuel the multibillion-dollar pornography industry. The value of laws against prostitution is well established. What if we were to enact laws that made it illegal to give or receive payment to perform sex acts?"

On the other side of the bed, is Sharon Mitchell, founder of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation. Mitchell’s proposal is more humane, though the proposal still entails getting under the covers with the government.

"What we can do is reward the producers, distributors and actors who use condoms with a “seal of approval.” The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, state and federal health departments, and my organization should act together to give approval to the films made by companies that use safe workplace and health care practices. Most mainstream companies don’t like to discuss their lucrative dirty secret — that they make huge profits off sex films. But if hotel chains like Hilton and Marriott, and cable companies like Time Warner and Comcast, showed only those films with the seal of approval, filmmakers would have a financial incentive to follow the rules."

I guess the two op-eds are the NYT’s idea of balance.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/02 at 03:50 AM
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