Adult entertainment industry leaders Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild and Larry Flynt of Hustler are asking for a government bailout of $5 billion in a letter to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass, and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
According to CNN, Francis claims the $5 billion reflects their decline in revenue from $18 billion three years ago and if the big three got help, so should they.
In their letter, Francis and Flynt say, “Porn has always been there to comfort Americans, to help them relax at the end of a busy day, and to take their mind off of their troubles,…Porn is the backbone of the American psyche.”
Francis continued this standpoint in an interview with TMZ.
“The US government should actively support the adult industry’s survival and growth, just as it feels the need to support any other industry cherished by the American people,” he said.
According to Flynt and Francis, XXX film sales and rentals have dropped 22% in the last year. A portion of this loss can be attributed to pirated copies and video streaming sites similar to YouTube. Both men stressed that the $13 billion industry is not in any imminent danger of collapse.
“But why take chances?” they asked.
The situation is striking up comments all around campus.
“That’s laughable…it’s not as silly as the geoduck, but it’s a catch 22,” said Jake Brooks. “This is legitimate…Without the porn industry we wouldn‘t have ingenuity in a sexual sense of a relationship,” said Chris Miller.
Lindell Bruce, a TRIO staff member, said, “If we give them one red cent, I’ll begin a tax revolt.”
The general consensus of students is that this will never pass.
Although, when asked if the bailout would be acceptable for a different entertainment group, such as Disney, Natasha Fuaau replied, “Disney is different.”
Morality and values were the main topics in Natasha’s reasons for this answer and other students mirrored her response.
If this request is merely a media stunt, as some say, Francis and Flynt couldn’t have picked a better time to do it. The four-day AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas started the day of their announcement, and by Wednesday night, Google had over 4,000 hits about the porn bailout.
Steven Hirsch, founder of Vivid Entertainment Group, claims they are, “just poking fun at all the industries getting bailouts…This is not the time to make sweeping statements. This is the time to buckle down and take the steps we need to save our industry,” in an interview with ajc.com.
Congress has yet to respond, but the real question at hand is not whether pornography leaders are serious about needing help due to the limp economy, but rather, where will the government draw the line on handing out taxpayer money to businesses?
Conrad Harnay, a GRCC student, says, “We should be spending money on blue collar Americans that need it, not rich people and the porn industry.”
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