WASHINGTON, D.C. – Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington (CREW) announced today that it will be holding a press conference tomorrow morning to present its new report, Addicted to Porn: How Members of Congress Benefit from Pornography. The report will expose a number of Congressmen who publicly decry the alleged harmful effects of pornography, but also accept donations from large American corporations that profit from the sale of adult entertainment.“Hypocritical does not begin to describe Members of Congress who vilify pornography, call for decency standards and then turn around and fill their campaign coffers with contributions from corporations and executives profiting from pornography,” Melanie Sloan, Executive Director of CREW, said today. “Our report, Addicted to Porn, will expose those Congressional members that choose to accept contributions from sources that profit from the very material they are railing against.”
Although the report might seem like an attack on pornography, CREW spokeswoman and Deputy Director Naomi Seligman told YNOT that exposing hypocrisy is the goal.
“It’s definitely, definitely not an attack on pornography,” said Seligman. “We have no stance on adult entertainment. It is the hypocrisy of Members of Congress that are stridently anti-porn while they are lining their pockets with [donations from] corporations that are making money off of pornography.”
Seligman said the idea for creating the report came after the organization heard repeated messages from certain Members of Congress about the alleged dangers of pornography.
“It was a series of stories about a number of Members, it was a series of decency bills where we heard a lot of rhetoric about how horrible obscenity and pornography was, and we were interested in finding out are these Members benefiting from pornography, and they are,” Seligman said.
Seligman declined to comment on which Members of Congress would be exposed in the report.
Author Frederick Lane, who is known to the adult industry for his successful book Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of Pornography in the Cyber-age, has agreed to speak at tomorrow’s news conference. He is expected to talk about the ways big corporations profit from pornography. Lane previously appeared on CBS’ popular news show 60 Minutes to discuss the same topic.
According to CREW’s website, “Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington targets government officials who sacrifice the common good to special interests. We will help Americans use litigation to shine a light on those who betray the public trust.”
More information about CREW and its mission can be found at www.citizensforethics.org.
