Conservative Pornography

The University of Maryland received national attention with its planned screening of Pirates II, Stagnetti's Revenge, an adult film advertised as “the biggest adult production in history,” reportedly costing $10 million and produced by Digital Playground. Conservative news sources and talk radio such as Hannity, Mark Levin and The Grandy & Andy Show have reported this as a waste of taxpayers’ money and immorality on college campuses. The story has become an issue of free speech for UMD students and faculty as state senator Andrew Harris (R) threatened to pull $400 million dollars in funding if the film was shown. This resulted in the Hoff Theater canceling the event despite the fact that the film was given, free of charge, as a promotional item and the ticket price was reportedly to cover staffing costs of the event. Ironically, Harris’s efforts moved the showing from the Hoff Theater, which has shown a variety of R rated movies often followed by discussion, to a lecture hall in a building typically used for English classes. Conservative news sources such as Fox News, WMAL 630AM and WTNT 570AM have used this story as an example of the damage being done in the country by the “liberal agenda” and subsequent lack of conservatism, morality and religion.

Right-wing media groups have used this story as an appeal to pathos to excite the conservatives back to their roots. The premise is: America’s youth are going to college and becoming pornography-watching, immoral, extreme leftists and something must be done. Colleges have been portrayed by right-wing media, particularly by Rush Limbaugh, as liberal run institutions gears towards brainwashing America’s youth in accordance with liberal ideals. Limbaugh refers to this in a segment April 2nd titled “Liberal Hatred and the Suppression of the Individual at American Colleges,” which can be found on his website. Limbaugh often laments the state of colleges in the United States as full of “leftist, indoctrinating college professor[s].” Limbaugh has been calling for his listeners to get, “… back to our conservative roots and excite the conservatives” as early as November 6th 2008. Other conservative hosts have followed this call in their own shows and positioned themselves in opposition to stories in which America is “under attack.” Sean Hannity pitted himself, as aligned with good, against this attack of evil on his Fox News show stating that he has never, in his life, viewed pornography. Hannity often employs this tactic using himself and his values to fuel support for his political beliefs during his programming.

The national coverage of this seemingly local story is another link in the chain of conservatives’ emotional and spiritual appeal of their audience. In December 2008 UCLA, among other colleges, screened the donated film on their campus without any major coverage. Since this time, conservative pundits have engaged in deliberative discourse against, what they refer to as, the “radical left” that now holds office in the White House. Under the guise of information, these programs are using fear to motivate their constituencies and their undecided viewers or listeners to get behind the Republican banner. The Grandy and Andy show criticized the University for showing the film while concurrently removing prayer from graduation ceremonies. In accordance with the conservative strategy, this sets up a polarized choice for the listeners; choose conservatism and you choose values and morality (prayer) or choose liberalism and you choose a lack of values and morality (pornography). The simplifying of issues such as separation of church and state and free speech sets up a good vs. evil scenario in which liberals are construed as evil, thus, conservatives are good not only in terms of morality, but policy.

The overall theme heard from these sources is one of an impending doom; the idea that the policies the Obama administration stands behind, and even what happens while he is president, will result in an America that is weak, poor, devoid of individuality and, in this particular case, immoral.

There is often a great deal of focus on the founding fathers and the "founding principles" of this country that are, in right-wing media, linked to religious principles. Much in the same way the story of pornography is used to create a sense of a deteriorating educational system. Issues such as sex marriage in juxtaposition with these religious principles are used to invoke a decent in the moral fiber of the country, or as Mark Levin says, the “transformation of society” under the “reckless” leadership of Obama and enforced by the “goons he surrounds himself with.” All of these subjects are part of a larger campaign to regain power in the government through the revamping and revitalizing of religious, moral, and conservative values by appealing to the fear of a nation without any values. In essence, conservatives, through their rhetorical appeals to fear and emotional-laden religious beliefs, are using the lesser-used definition of pornography: “the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction.”


and on and on and on