BUSINESS THREADS

I received many, many emails, phone calls, and ICQs in the last week concerning my YNOT Wire, “Where is the Sheriff?”. I would say 90% of them were the “Great Job, you are the Oprah of the Internet” and 10% were “What the hell were you thinking?” I can live with batting .900 for my YNOT Wires.BUSINESS THREADS

I received many, many emails, phone calls, and ICQs in the last week concerning my YNOT Wire, “Where is the Sheriff?”. I would say 90% of them were the “Great Job, you are the Oprah of the Internet” and 10% were “What the hell were you thinking?” I can live with batting .900 for my YNOT Wires. Please just remember though, this YNOT Wire is just my opinion. And sometimes my opinion may be a little skewed by how much emotion child pornography stirs inside of me. I have seen the pictures. I have talked to counselors of abused kids. And I have submitted many CP sites to the authorities, yet unfortunately, a dent hasn’t been made in that whole sordid industry. But I do want to address some valid points that were made to me concerning my opinion on the MSNBC article I quoted last week. Thank you for all your responses, and especially for enlightening me on some of my statements.

I think many people missed one of my points. I was trying to stress how the mainstream news media is feeding into the hands of our government by printing articles which they may, or may not know, is making the adult Internet look like a bunch of perverts. I am constantly reading articles in places, such as MSNBC, which has used the word “porn” as meaning “child porn”. Next time you read an article about child pornography see if they do this. Once you associate the words together, we are socially going to be frowned upon-BIG TIME. Another example of this happened here in San Diego. I was watching TV late at night, and the news anchor came on to give her lead into the 11:00PM news broadcast. She said something to the effect: “Big porn bust has ties here to San Diego.” Well, I was very interested in finding out what this was about, so I stayed up to watch the news. I was shocked when I found out it was child pornography. The audience now thinks “porn” means “child porn,” because that is how they were using the word. Check it out for yourself. Tell someone you are in the “porn” business and they will look at you entirely different than if you were in the “Adult Internet” business.

In the MSNBC article I was infuriated with the fact they mislead America by saying the Landslide child pornography site had 250,000 to 300,000 members and then stated that most people who look at CP are child molesters. How irresponsible is this? They failed to let America know that of those 300,000 members, only a small percentage was actually accessing CP. And it is entirely possible that many of the customers on this list were not even members at all. You know as well as I do the practice some webmasters do of buying customer lists for spamming purposes. For all we know, mainstream America now thinks there are 300,000 child-molesting pornographers across the nation on just ONE site!

I was also informed by a full-time criminal defense lawyer, who is representing one of the people busted in this mega porn case, why it has taken so long to start more prosecutions. Here is his description:

“Faced with a list of 250,000 suspects and no hard proof of criminal activity the cops did what they always do, they set up a sting operation. Several federal and state agencies got together and formed a task force (I don’t even want to know how many donuts were consumed at that meeting). The task force set up a phony website and then spammed almost all of the 250,000 people on the Landslide list with a two page email enticing them to visit the site. The email and website employed phrases like “have your most bizarre fantasies fulfilled, ” “We feature only the most taboo material” and “Stop wasting your time with scams, this is the real thing.” The site had a feedback form that would allow a visitor to request the type of material that he wanted. After receiving the request, the police would then engage that person in a series of email communications intended to elicit more and more information about the material that person wanted. That would be followed by the police sending an electronic order form to the suspect listing several imaginary items of CP. If the suspect took the bait, a postal inspector would carry out a “controlled delivery” of child pornography to the suspect and 20 minutes later the cops would kick the door down and bust him.”

I don’t know about you, but this seems like a lot of work to entice someone out of the woodwork to finally admit they want to see some child pornography. This also sounds like entrapment to me. Hey, I am ecstatic they popped the people who finally admitted to wanting CP. I am just not too crazy about them telling America there were 250,00 members of this site watching child pornography, and “most of them are child molesters.” I would have loved to read about all the resources this must have taken being used to arrest the actual provider of the content.

I received another email, which basically summed up my whole argument last week: “I’m glad you enjoyed my email. I was really disappointed in the way the mainstream media was portraying the whole operation and I definitely fear that Ashcroft is going to use the negative press generated by this thing as a foothold to begin going after legit adult sites.”

BINGO! I am glad someone got my meaning!

In one of the more critical emails I received, and I can see this gentleman’s point, it said that I was being unfair to Ashcroft. He has only been in office for a short time, and most of this illegal activity happened prior to him being appointed. “Attorney General 1999-2000 was Janet Reno. With the delay in the confirmation process and the election problems last fall Ashcroft was not on the job till April or May of 2001. Within 4 months of his confirmation arrests were made in the case. So how then could he be responsible for children suffering for 2 years when he’s only had the job for 4 or 5 months? To accuse Ashcroft as allowing these atrocities to continue for 2 years to advance a political agenda is downright mean, and rather illogical.”

You are 100% correct! I was very wrong on pointing my entire distaste for government on Ashcroft. But Ashcroft is the one who will be using this information to gather and rally support from mainstream America in order to get his hands in our business. Ashcroft is also the one who is misleading the press, especially in the Landslide case. He is a smart man, and he has shown that he has a definite agenda here. I was wrong in imposing all the blame on Ashcroft, but I will not back down on my point that he is the one who will be responsible for creating a higher and higher frenzy in America in order to regulate the Internet.

Another point well taken in my article is that I stated, “What about the providers of the content? Why are there no busts being announced.” Well again I ask you; Why doesn’t the government place as big a media importance on this as on the arrests of customers? In the email I received, the author told me of some big CP busts in Russia and in Italy. Well, I didn’t hear about it. Why? I will tell you why, in my own opinion.

With the latest articles concerning the Landslide CP busts, there are no mentions of big provider arrests in foreign countries. The Postmaster General doesn’t mention anything, the Attorney General doesn’t state anything. They only mention the arrests of the customers. Ashcroft knew this was going to be the lead story across America. His numbers were misleading, his analogies were wrong, and he does NOT want us to know about the arrests of the providers. Why you ask? If the providers of this hideous content are being arrested, then the problem is being handled. If the problem is being handled, then Ashcroft does not have to step up and “protect America” by regulating. Honestly, when was the last time you read a story about a customer being busted, and when was the last time you heard about a major provider being arrested? And in what capacity did mainstream American press make these reports? The Landslide case was EVERYWHERE. The content provider arrests, well, let’s just put it this way: I missed that report on my local news station.

In the same email I received concerning being unfair to Ashcroft, the person made this statement: “… instead of chasing non-existent conspiracies let’s just be happy that a quarter of a million people who pose a clear and present danger to the children of the world are or will soon be behind bars.”

BINGO! Thank you for proving my take on the fact that mainstream America mislead everyone, even people who disagree with my last Wire.

You, yourself just fell into Ashcroft’s media trap. There were NOT “a quarter of a million people” who were members of this child pornography site. Ashcroft let that number slip out, as I explained before, to make it seem like there are that many child pornographers in our neighborhood.

Look at the big picture here, that is all I am asking. Ask yourself, “What angle was this article written? What words are they using and why? Where is the proof and the actual stats?” (We still were never given any concrete facts that “most people who watch child pornography are child molesters.”) And then ask yourself the final question, “Do you tell people you work in porn or in the Adult Internet and why?” In my opinion, much damage has been done to our industry already because of irresponsible and misinformed reporting to America. What this will eventually do to our industry is still to be seen, but I for one, am a bit worried.