In a profile written by the New Yorker?s Jeffrey Toobin nearly a year and a half ago, Ashhahahahaha came off as a right-wing zealot ? far more socially conservative, for instance, than Ronald Reagan?s attorney general, Edwin Meese, who made fighting pornography one of his top priorities. Ashhahahahaha is a man, after all, who, as a senator, tried to abolish the National Endowment for the Arts because of his belief, as Toobin described it, that it subsidized "elitist and indecent projects." Who was the first member of the Senate to call on Bill Clinton to resign the presidency because he?d had oral sex with someone other than his wife. Who supports a constitutional amendment to outlaw flag-burning, a form of protest protected by the First Amendment. Who is considered something of a prude by Phyllis Schlafly ? Phyllis Schlafly ? because he?s so opposed to gambling that he didn?t want to buy a raffle ticket at one of her fundraising events.
The challenge that Ashhahahahaha now faces, as others have noted, is twofold. For the past 10 years, porn has gotten more outrageous ? largely because prosecutions ground to a near halt during the Clinton years ? and more ubiquitous, thanks to the Internet and to services such as X-rated channels in even the finest hotels. Porn today is a big business ? worth perhaps as much as $10 billion per year.
At the same time, the culture has changed significantly since the days when prosecutors were trying to make examples of Al Goldstein, Larry Flynt, and Harry Reems. The very ubiquity of porn makes it far more difficult to enforce or even define "community standards." And prosecutors who hope that jurors will be shocked by the likes of Ass Clowns 3 may learn that it?s harder to outrage ordinary citizens than it used to be, given what their own pay-per-view or Web-surfing habits might be.
If you go to the Extreme Associates Web site, you can buy the "Federal Five" ? the five videos for which Zicari and Romano are being prosecuted ? for a special price of $110, with the proceeds going to their legal-defense fund.
In the Frontline piece, Romano describes her filmmaking technique this way: "I don?t shoot the lovey-dovey porno that you watch all the time. This is for people who watch porno all the time, and they?re sick of the husband and the wife making love with candles. This is for ?if you want to jerk off to fuckin? porno with your old lady, and you?re watching it and you?re getting into it, and it?s hot, steamy sex that you?re, like ? after you get done you feel like you just did drugs. Like, ?Yeah!?"
We can?t always choose our First Amendment champions. In this case, John Ashhahahahaha and his holy warriors have chosen them for us.
Remember: no one?s making you watch.
Dan Kennedy can be reached at
[email protected] Read his daily Media Log at BostonPhoenix.com.