Porn's Anti-Condom Camp Backed By Los Angeles Times, Daily News!?
An industry known for its strange just got some even stranger bedfellows.
Nate 'Igor' Smith Pornfolk.
The adult biz's campaign against condoms on-set was endorsed overnight by the Los Angeles Times and the L.A. Daily News, the first and third largest publications in town (LA Weekly doesn't publish political endorsements).
In fact, you could say the campaign against county ballot measure B, which would require permits and condoms in most of L.A. County, scored a trifecta of sorts:
The Daily News and the next big publication in town, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, are sister papers that have the same endorsements.
The industry has resisted mandatory condom rules, saying that consumers won't buy condom porn -- and that its regular STD tests for performers works (a point that can certainly be debated).
In saying no to county enforcement of condoms, the Times failed to acknowledge that this is already the law, according to California workplace safety officials (a fact noted in the paper's past coverage of the topic).
The state says federal law intends to protect workers from exposure to blood-borne pathogens. However, California doesn't have the resources to put prophylactic police on every set.
In spearheading Measure B, which will be on next month's ballot, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation has argued that what it really wants is for local officials to do their jobs.
The city of L.A. recently passed a similar law but has yet to figure out how to enforce it. And therein lies the rub -- and the crux of the Times' argument:
... It's impossible to predict the results of passage. Measure B then falls into the category of "Let's pass it and see what happens." That's a bad way to make law because it puts government, or voters, on a track toward regulating all kinds of conduct without any hope of enforcing the requirements fairly and equally, and that in turn undermines the power of government.
On Twitter last night opponents of the measure were elated:
LA Times Comes Out Against Ballot Measure B !!! This is HUGE !!! adultbizlaw.com/la-times-comes... Pls RT !!!
— Michael Fattorosi (@pornlaw) October 18, 2012
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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