MiM, Others Naively Label NBC’s ‘The Playboy Club’ as Porn

NEW YORK—While it is simply too difficult to accurately assess the collective inanity of the anti-porn movement, their tactics continue to amaze and astound those of us who would at least like to have a worthwhile opponent with which to do battle. As diligent as the people at Morality in Media may be in their campaign to eradicate pornography, by continuing to label Playboy as porn they only make themselves look hopelessly out of touch. Playboy not only is not hardcore porn—not that MiM makes any distinction between hardcore and softcore—but its founder Hugh Hefner has never turned down an opportunity to disassociate himself and his company from sexually explicit fare. But here they are again, braying to the moon and the few true believers who follow them that if NBC does not cancel its new series, The Playboy Club, hellfire will descend upon the network in the form of a national boycott. “We’re launching a big effort with our web site, closetheclubonnbc.com,” Dawn Hawkins, executive director of Morality in Media, told Fox News. “We’re asking supporters to sign the pledge to and to contact their local NBC affiliates and ask them not to air the show. And as soon as we discover who is sponsoring the show, we’ll ask our supporters to contact them as well.” Shelley Lubben of the Pink Cross Foundation and a constant if pixilated irritant at Cal/OSHA hearings on mandatory condom usage on porn sets, is also joining the fray, telling Fox, “What’s shown in The Playboy Club is not real—Playboy definitely damages people. It’s pornography, it’s sex trafficking and it exploits women.” Of course, what really get’s Lubben’s goat is not trafficking, but a three-way. “The series looks like it’s all cute, taking place back in the old days—it seems harmless, but then they show a quick clip of three people going at it in the bathroom,” she stated. “NBC is breaking the law with this show—they’re not meeting FCC standards.” How much do you want to bet that neither genitals nor penetration are even remotely portrayed in that scene? I didn’t think so. Lubben, who is infamous for exaggerating facts beyond any measure of recognition, is at it again, but then, so is Pat Trueman, who has made a career out of telling everyone within earshot that every sexually explicit image found online is illegal and prosecutable. “We don't know the specific content of The Playboy Club yet, but reports are that it will include simulated sex and nudity,” the MiM president told Fox. "Simulated sex can be prosecuted by Department of Justice as obscene and nudity, so long as it is not obscene, can be prosecuted by the FCC. The U. S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit struck down FCC's indecency regulations, but that ruling has application only in that circuit. The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to hear an appeal of that ruling. We will file an amicus brief.” It might seem odd that Trueman and the morality police have damned the Playboy series before even knowing what’s in it, but is anyone really surprised? Of course, the real reason MiM is so up in arms about NBC and The Playboy Club could very well have little to do with morals and everything to do with money! You see, MiM is apparently broke, or so it is claiming in an email solicitation sent out today to its list of followers. “We Need Your Help,” the subject line screamed in a plea for “hundreds and hopefully thousands” of small donors. The problem is that MiM was seeking large contributors to underwrite its campaigns to target NBC, protect libraries from filth in the form of sex, and its overall war on “illegal” pornography, by which it means ALL pornography. Unfortunately, just as the group is “dipping deeply into what we thought were program funds for later this summer.” the “people of means” counted on to replenish MiM’s coffers have failed to materialize. “That has not happened though we have some supporters who have given very substantial amounts,” explained Trueman in the email. “Until we find many more major donors, we need hundreds and hopefully thousands of smaller donors.” And what better way to get those donations than to exaggerate the content and impact of a series about Playboy, perhaps the most dated—some would say out-of-date—adult company on the planet. But when you’re desperate, you’ll do just about anything. “We are most grateful for those who responded to our email plea Monday with generous contributions,” wrote Trueman, adding, “Yet, it was not even enough to get through this week.” Why not get a real job, then? Of incidental (and amusing) interest, the Fox News article that so warmly communicates MiM’s dire warnings about The Playboy Club, and without even checking to see if it’s accurate parrots Trueman’s claim of potential illegality by asserting that the series “could also run afoul of federal law,” misspells Trueman’s name throughout the article. They spell is like the former president, of course, and not as the former federal prosecutor actually spells it. Anyone surprised by that faux pas? I didn’t think so.