AVN journalist Mark Kernes. "He is part of the status quo. In the time I worked with him at the FSC, I never saw any progressive action by him, and even worse, was his refusal to demand accountability by the executive director. He fails to recognize that the best way to serve members is to challenge management. How can he help take the FSC forward when he simply votes whichever way the current executive director [Jeffrey Douglas] request?"
Mark Kernes responds: "I'm not surprised that, in the FSC board of directors election, Greg Zeboray both supports Mike Ross, a man whose intention, I strongly suspect, is to attempt to take over the FSC and remake it in his own image, while dissing me. Greg's obviously still smarting from the fact that the FSC refused to condemn Miss Sharon Mitchell for allowing another insurance agent to offer insurance at the AIM offices which was similar to what Greg was offering through FSC. It's called 'competition,' Greg; get used to it.
"I really had to laugh at the phrase 'In the time I worked with him at the FSC.' I was elected last January; Greg was no longer the FSC insurance coordinator by, I think, February, or was at least winding down his involvement then. Yeah, he had a lot of time to observe me! Probably one hour total (if that much!) at two different monthly meetings! Greg also claims 'He [me] fails to recognize that the best way to serve members is to challenge management.' Apparently Greg doesn't recognize the dynamics of ANY board of directors, not just FSC's. The executive director's job is to carry out the will of the board - a difficult position even on boards that aren't as philosophically and agendically [sic] divided as FSC's. Exactly how that equates to 'members' and 'management' is less than clear. If he's talking about the board vs. Douglas, it's a false analogy.
"If anything, Douglas is the board's employee - or was, I should say, since it has been an unpaid position for more than a year, which means Jeffrey's been volunteering his time... just like the rest of us. And in any case, Douglas has shown himself to be an excellent executive director, given the fact that it is a part-time, unpaid position. (That is being remedied, and a new, full-time, paid executive director will be in place by January - or so it is planned.) Douglas enjoys varying degrees of support from the board members, and speaking for myself, I'd say he's generally done an excellent job, factoring in the opposition he's had to face from the people that simply don't like him personally and/or accuse him of foot-dragging the executive director search because he wants to be some sort of dictator. I feel I know him well enough to say that that's horseshit. In terms of performance, he gets at least an 85 (out of 100) from me - and would, I think, from anyone who considered the subject objectively.
"Moreover, Douglas has been an excellent spokesman for the industry - in some ways, even better than me - as would be apparent to anyone who's heard him speak on various television and radio shows, or at seminars during the major conventions. In short, Douglas is a prize, and the FSC is lucky to have him.
"On the other hand, if Greg's talking about FSC members vs. the board, I'd strongly suspect the insurance thing has raised its ugly head again. It's true that there are not one hell of a lot of (material) reasons to join FSC right now - in fact, the main reason I can give is because it is THE agency that publicly and eruditely supports the industry in the media when nobody, and I mean NOBODY, else will. There are several programs (including insurance, increased lobbying, and financial support for retailers who've been busted) that have been discussed over the past year that I've been on the board, but which are 'on hold' until the new executive director comes in - at least in part because FSC lacks focus on some issues beyond its mission statement, and the incoming e.d. (and, one hopes, all of the new directors) will assist with regaining that focus.
"But let's make one thing clear - and I'm speaking only for myself here; the following is not necessarily shared (and in fact would undoubtedly be repudiated) by other board members: FSC is not a fan organization; that's FOXE. The Free Speech Coalition is the trade organization of the adult video industry (and to a lesser extent, other parts of the adult entertainment industry, such as dance clubs and Internet), and as with any other trade organization, its interests should be the interests and welfare of those who work in the industry.
"But in my opinion, there has to be a hierarchy in terms of those objectives: Foremost, FSC should support the companies and distributors who produce/manufacture the product and get it to the stores; second, the people that make the movies - performers, directors, techs, etc. that make the product that the producers/manufacturers need to stay in business; and third, the retailers that are on the frontlines, selling the product to all the horndogs out there - and facing the initial onslaught of the attempts to shut the industry down. And frankly, if the FSC were better capitalized, especially by those same retailers, the retailers would have a viable shot at being in second place in this hierarchy, because we'd (FSC) be in a better position to help them stay in business through all the legal battles (which, if you hadn't guessed, will be worse come the next federal administration) and the crap put out by organizations with words like "family" and "children" in their titles. Fortunately, however, it's a big industry, and there seems to be room for support for all involved - but when choices have to be made, that's the hierarchy I'd follow at FSC.
"But perhaps I've strayed from the point. Oh, what the fuck... In the ten years I've been 'intimately' involved in the adult video industry, I've met a lot of its members, and one thing I look for in getting to know them is whether they have this industry's interests at heart in addition to their own interests. Anyone who doesn't have a rational amount of self-interest is stupid - but anyone who has little or no interest in the industry in which he/she is working, and/or isn't willing to occasionally let that rational self-interest take a temporary back-seat to overriding issues, is equally stupid.
"Far worse are the people who claim to have this industry's interests at heart but who, through ignorance or lack of understanding or some personal agenda, support actions and values that are detrimental to the industry. One needn't even mention Luke Ford; he's already made it clear that his objective is to destroy the industry, and he doesn't care if he lies and defames people in order to do it. That makes those who correspond with him and feed him information stupid, or at least very short-sighted.
"But take the attacks mounted against Miss Sharon Mitchell and AIM, not the least of which came (and still come) from Mr. Zeboray himself. When the most recent HIV case was discovered, it wasn't any other clinic out there that got the news out immediately and started working on geneaologies for everyone involved. It wasn't anyone else but Mitchell/AIM who tracked down an actress 6200 miles away and arranged for her to get a VALID DNA test, despite the remote possibility that the results could have been faked. (As readers may recall, within the last year or so, suspicions about at least one possibly faked test have been raised here in America as well, leading one to suspect that no system is foolproof.) It isn't anyone but AIM that provides a wide range of support groups and counseling for sex workers in trouble or other distress. The woman should be getting a medal for the phenomenal amount of work she's done - in fact, AVN gave her one last year - but I've noticed that there are self-aggrandizing detractors in this industry who never seem to quit piling on the shit.
"Well, I've rambled on long enough. Let the brickbats fly..."
