One day after appearing ABC’s Good Morning America, AVN publisher and editor-in-chief Tim Connelly has issued the first-ever “AVN Obscenity Alert,” inspired by comments made by U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, the woman prosecuting the Extreme Associates case, during the same show.
While the necessity of the interview itself was offensive – the reason both Connelly and Buchanan were on the morning program was to discuss U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft’s war on pornography, reminiscent of the Meese commission or even the theocracy of ante bellum Afghanistan – it was a comment by Buchanan regarding Playboy that caused Connelly to feel the need to raise the alarm.
Good Morning America host Charles Gibson asked Buchanan to give her interpretation of what is illegal, specifically questioning how far the “community standards” concept could go. “Some would argue that applies to Playboy. By community standards Playboy might be offensive,” Gibson said.
Buchanan admitted, “That might be possible.”
With that in mind, Connelly warns all Americans to postpone their Labor Day vacation plans and go through their homes, garages, and where applicable their barns – and find and destroy any Playboy magazines if they’re concerned about their arrest and prosecution for possession of obscene material.
“Mary Beth Buchanan has made it clear the Department of Justice may choose to focus on any community they may decide would find even a Playboy obscene, so in good consciousness, Americans should protect themselves accordingly, even so far as warning those with family members in the military fighting overseas to divulge where Playboy may be hidden back home and also to destroy any copies they may have in their possession,” Connelly warned.
“And even if you think you don’t have any Playboy’s, you may want to check underneath your bathroom sink. Our research shows that’s a very popular location for college students to stash their so-softcore-that-even-virgins-don’t-consider-it-porn magazine collection,” Connelly added.
As to whether Connelly feels that people should only eliminate Playboy from their homes or expand their search and destroy efforts to include other magazines, he replied with an assertive “Yes!”
“In the eyes of a censor, nothing is safe,” Connelly explained. “Americans may want to eliminate all issues of Cosmopolitan, Maxim and especially TV Guide since there’s no telling when there will be another Britney Spears special. And of course, if you own any porn, which in the eyes of the government now might be anything and everything, one may just want to destroy anything without a “G” rating, unless it’s a historical flick regarding Christianity – because those usually get at least a “PG-13” rating because of all the blood and gore.
AVN will continue to issue “AVN Obscenity Alerts” as we deem them appropriate and necessary to our safety and protection as law abiding Americans.
Have a happy, safe and fun-filled Labor Day weekend!
