Giles

I was bored with both ER and The Agency tonight and wandered over to PBS and the topic on Frontline was on the Porn industry and the Government. Nonetheless it was a fascinating riviting examination about how far the porn industry has gotten and what type of intervention both the government and community standards will prevent and regulate on what is considered to be "obscene". Did anyone else see this show? Of course there was one scene that I personally felt was explicitly implied, including the filmmakers of Frontline, who actually left the set in disgust - the filming of a scene in which a woman is violently raped and ultimately has her throat slashed. This scene kind of summed up what Frontline was aiming for - what does one fine "obscene" and should not be shown and available for the mass public. I of course do not support censorship, and it bothers me that the extreme explicitness of what is seen in today's porn, might ultimately bring down it down.

www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/porn/

mikehunt

didn't see the show, but I bet that fake rape/throat slashing stuff is kind of rare
mainstream porn isn't like that

Giles

Granted this "rape scene" was filmed and aimed for a specialized audience but to also hear from the female director and the justification for her filming this scene just creeped me out.

Mopower

The PBS station in my area, said they where going to show it Monday at 3:00am due to content and showed the Black Hawk Down Frontline instead.

dave955

I saw this episode. I thought it was very interesting. Did anyone else find it interesting that it turns out Clinton was the most pro-pr0n president in our history? Reno explained it as the Justice Department prosecuting other types of cases, e.g. violent crime and national security, but I'm not sure I buy it, especially since violent crime was down during the economic expansion of the 90s.

I find it a little odd that the best the Supreme Court could do in creating a legal standard for pr0n was to think to show it to 12 schmoes and soccer moms and see if it offends them. That said, I would NOT want to be the guy who put together the kidnap, rape, and murder tape. How on earth is fisting the case trial you'd do over a tape so offensive the documentary crew LEFT!

Frank TJ Mackey

Yeah thanks for letting me know this was on. I saw it in the wee hours......the last half anyway.

The female director definitely scared the hell out of me. Some of these weirdos make Larry Flynt look like a f**kin saint.

Starting today (feb. 8) you can watch the entire show at PBS' website. it's an "org".

das Monkey

ahem ... it's pr0n.

das

CharlesC

Really good show. PBS just rocks, 99% of the time you can find something on PBS (I get 3 channels) that is interesting.

Most of the stuff they want to prosecute over isn't worth it in my opinion, however scenarios like the rape scene go too far and actually encourage people to hurt other people. Most of the other stuff isn't hurting anybody (even though most is pretty damn gross).

If 'regular' porn isn't doing it for you anymore then you need to get some help if you ask me.

Nick Danger

That quote by Lizzie Borden is a good example of why, when guys with TV cameras come to your door, you refer them to your professional spokesperson. I bet the next words out of her mouth were, "Omigod, you aren't going to show that, are you?"

Flint is no saint, he just got old and timid. Gloria Steinham has an archive of photos and cartoons from older Hustler featuring pedo, rape, and snuff. He is also his own trained spokesperson, and always comes across well on camera.

Tesiae

My God. This show made me ashamed to even have a libido.

Haven't these people ever heard of eroticism? Jeez, it's all geared towards a two minute masturbation session.

G. Noel Gross

I found it really lean on actual "news." It was geared toward NPR fraus who'd be SHOCKED to discover you can watch sanitized porn in hotel rooms. Puh-leeze. The meat of it was that the new justice administration was going to come at pornographers again after the glory years of the Clinton era. Enjoy those puns if you must. I'd hate to see an auteur like Seymore Butts get spanked merely for filming a couple gals expressing their love with a clinched fist. Girl power, indeed.

Tesiae

Noel: Actually, what I found rather ridiculous is that in the past, Frontline hasn't been shy about showing graphic real life violence, yet for this special we get black squares.

G. Noel Gross

True. And how about the MUSIC?! The narration and interviews are oh-so serious and then you've got tee-hee music cues. Ah, those rapier wits in public broadcasting.

Phil L.

Sorry to get slightly off the main topic, but did anyone see the Frontline episode regarding the music industry and how it's really controlled and marketed to kids by large corporations?

They specifically mention rap music and how corporations worked hard to get Sprite seen as a happening urban soft drink.

Also included was info such as how corporate types will go online into teen chat rooms posing as kids in order to try to shill their various products and music, and attempt to shape opinions.

I did not see all of this episode and was wondering if anyone knows when it might be repeated.

Tesiae

Noel: You know, despite all the cutesy lounge songs and somewhat glamorized depiction of the porn industry, I still came away from the program feeling really depressed.

Once you suppress the natural tendency towards arousal and stop objectifying women in those videos and actually think about who they are as people, you get this utterly empty feeling in the pit of your stomach. There is just something so sad about a business built around the lonely act of masturbation. I don't know. I guess that I'm at the point in my life where porn just doesn't have the same appeal it had when I was 15.

And the idea that someone can get off from watching a person get raped and murdered just scares me. Still, it doesn't hold a candle to the stuff they have produced in Japan. Try stomaching the Guinea Pig series. That is some seriously f**ked up stuff.