A coalition of anti-porn groups wants the Pennsylvania state senate to send Comcast a strong message: Either the cable provider dumps hardcore porn from its pay-per-view menu, or they can forget about Keystone Opportunity Improvement Zone tax breaks said to be worth “tens of millions of dollars” to the company.
"If Comcast is going to get a multi-million-dollar per-year tax break, certainly they can afford not to deal in the pornography business," said William Devlin, whose Urban Family Council is one of the anti-porn groups making up the coalition. "Comcast has contributed to the decline of American culture by insisting that their company continue to demean women by depicting them engaged in acts of hardcore pornography."
Urban Family Council is joined in the coalition by the Pennsylvania Family Institute, Pennsylvanians Against Pornography, the American Family Association, Survivors and Victims Empowered, and the director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Cognitive Therapy, Dr. Mary Anne Layden. They plan to meet or contact as many Pennsylvania state senators as possible to stop Comcast from getting the tax breaks unless they yank the porn.
Devlin said announcing the lobbying effort that there is a direct link between porn and violence against women, without necessarily offering studies or figures to support the assertion. "The Pennsylvania State Senate should not give tax breaks to a company whose programming increases the rate of domestic violence in the United States," he said. "If Comcast wants a KOIZ, they should pull the porn," Devlin said.
Philadelphia-based Comcast, which boasts more than 22 million subscribers in the U.S., reported revenue of $18.3 billion in 2003. The groups pressuring Comcast to drop the porn said some $50 million of that revenue comes from adult material.
Comcast's June pay-per-view lineup is said to include Extreme Behavior, Wicked Sex Party 5, Barely Legal 45, and Best Butt in the West 6.
