Protecting First Amendment rights while at once warding off attacks against Adult entertainment is the goal of the Adult Freedom Foundation, a newly forming group which vows to be a watchdog for the Adult entertainment world.
"It's almost formed," AFF media consultant John Pauly told AVNOnline.com January 5. "There's some legal papers that have to be filed to make a transfer of the name and that should be done this week. It's up and running for all practical purposes, but in order to get the Website up we have to have the name legally transferred."
The group's planned Website, Pauly said, has yet to be approved in final form by the group's various founders, though Pauly and general counsel Paul Cambira said the site was likely to get its final approval and posting by the end of the day January 6.
The AFF was formed by several Adult entertainment companies whom neither Pauly nor Cambria would identify, both men saying the companies believe what the AFF plans to do is more significant than the individual firms who brought it together.
They're determined to bring as strong a presence in countering myth and innuendo against Adult entertainment as they can, according to Cambria, who emphasized the group has no intention of trying to supplant such groups as Free Speech Coalition. He said he sees AFF as a kind of strike force covering the broad picture, rather than the more compact purview taken up by individual attorneys who often speak within the contexts of individual clients' battles.
"All too often, the Adult entertainment industry has been the target of misinformation and unfounded criticism," Cambria said in a formal statement announcing the group's formation. "The Adult Freedom Foundation will speak with a new voice. We plan to supply accurate and positive information to the public for a change."
In addition to offering media access to legal, scientific, and industry executives to counter what they consider false claims by politicians and pressure groups, the AFF said they will watch especially to stop uninformed groups, right wing and otherwise, from co-mingling child porn with lawful Adult entertainment in bids to outlaw both.
"It's been in the works for quite awhile," Cambria told AVNOnline.com. "It came together because there was a feeling, among a number of the major players in the industry, that, you know, there's so much propaganda being floated across America by these religious groups, these right-wing groups, that was inaccurate, that was inflammatory, and that needed to be answered.
"And it needed to be answered quickly," he continued, especially in such instances as recent U.S. Senate committee testimony attempting to prove porn as toxic or addictive material. "If you had [that] testimony before the Senate committee, [our] group would have responded to that immediately by not only debunking it but, in addition, drawing upon some other experts to counter it."
Cambria said the group's engaging Pauly as their media consultant and representative – Pauly has a background that includes investigative journalism in print and broadcast – is an indication the group is aiming to go big and long in defending Adult entertainment.
"We're going to be responding to everything," Cambria said. "If it takes television, we'll do that. If it takes writing, we'll do that. If it takes newspapers, we'll do that. Whatever it takes, that's what we'll do.
"That's what these companies wanted to do," he continued, referring to those who formed the AFF. "Counteract the propaganda, counteract the misinformation, counteract this agenda that these groups have of trying to make people think that child pornography is part of the Adult erotic world, or that the major [Adult entertainment] companies are involved in it. You need a unified voice, but you also need somebody who can respond immediately."
"The AFF… is dedicated to fighting child pornography," Pauly said. "While adamantly against child pornography, AFF believes adults should be allowed to enjoy erotic entertainment. And, that the average adult accepts that right for other adults to choose lawful erotic entertainment."
