Don't just talk about it...watch it
From The Swift Report (in 2005):
A pro-family group known for its high-profile crusades against indecency is facing criticism for airing a pornographic video on its website. The American Family Association is encouraging visitors to the site to watch footage of an extended teenage orgy. Some viewers say that they followed the AFA's instructions, believing that the "Without a Trace" video was about the rapture.
The Swift Report then quotes from a newspaper article, highlighting a family discussion:
When Marly Dirksen stumbled upon her husband Rich watching a pornographic video on the internet, he didn't blush with embarrassment and promise to seek counseling. In fact, the 42-year-old electrical engineer and father of two swore that he'd been doing nothing wrong. After all, to watch the teenage sex orgy Mr. Dirksen didn't have to visit an adult website specializing in teen sexual encounters. Instead, he found the footage on the homepage of the American Family Association....
Mr. Dirksen clicked on [an] AFA link and found himself watching teens having sex. "At first I wasn't sure what it was, so I had to watch it a few times," he says.
For her part, Mrs. Dirksen says that she is shocked that the AFA, one of the loudest voices in the current values crusade, would post a pornographic video on its website—and encourage members to watch it. "There were breasts exposed and thighs and things that you don't expect to see on a pro-family website. It's indecent and I think that they should take it down before another innocent visitor like my husband ends up watching it," says Mrs. Dirksen.
So how are we raised? Perhaps not like this:
Cincinnati resident Ethel Walker says that she received the shock of her life when she viewed the video, called "Without a Trace." "I thought that because of the title it was going to be about the Rapture, and what it's going to be like here on earth when all the born-again believers in Jesus Christ are taken up before the Tribulation, just like it says in Thessalonians," says Walker.
The 53-year-old says that she was prepared for some nudity: "It's a well known fact that when we're summoned up to heaven, we'll be leaving our clothes behind." But the AFA video, says Walker, seemed excessive. "This was smut, pure and simple, and I don't understand why a Christian website would be broadcasting it to the world."
According to the article, AFA's actions were intentional:
[T]he AFA is still encouraging visitors to its site to view the video. Visitors who watch the orgy are then asked to send a letter to the FCC describing what they saw.
"In one scenario," reads the AFA letter, "a girl sits astride a boy as they simulate sexual intercourse. The girl wears only a bra and panties, and another girl fondles both her and the boy."
This article appeared on February 9, 2005. The only mention of "Without a Trace" on the AFA website is in this press release:
For Immediate Release: 1/19/2005
Over 70,000 indecency complaints filed after CBS and FCC cut deal
(Tupelo, MS) - Thousands of Americans are outraged with CBS’s airing of “Without A Trace” and the Federal Communication Commission for cutting a deal with CBS’s parent company Viacom.
In November 2004, the FCC cut a deal with Viacom allowing it to pay $3.5 million in exchange for dropping thousands of CBS’s indecency complaints filed by taxpaying consumers.
According to Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association, AFA supporters have filed over 70,000 indecency complaints concerning CBS’s “Without A Trace” that shows a graphic and extended teen-age orgy scene and was aired December 31, 2004, right after Viacom’s deal with the FCC. AFA supporters also requested the FCC to stop cutting deals with broadcasters of indecent material.
Commissioner Michael Copps disagreed with the November deal the FCC cut with Viacom. Copps wrote, “The totality of a broadcasters’ record is pertinent and should be considered when licenses are renewed. Today’s decision takes an entire part of the record off the table.”
“There should be no deal-making over legitimate formal complaints that taxpaying Americans took the time to register,” Wildmon said. “Congress made the rules and the FCC’s job is to enforce the rules as opposed to changing them.”
“The FCC has sold out the American public,” Wildmon said. “The FCC can not continue wiping the record clean of thousands of complaints after the networks pay some pocket change, or there will never be any accountability.”
American Family Association is a pro-family advocacy organization with over two million online supporters.
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It doesn't say what prompted the 70,000 people to write the FCC.
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