Porn Again

Porn Again
BBC Radio 5 live.
21:30 on Thursday 3 March

Jacqui Smith has made a documentary for BBC Radio 5 live looking at pornography in Britain today.

The ex-MP was embarrassed in 2009 when it was revealed that her husband had watched pornographic movies on paid TV, then she used parliamentary expenses to foot the bill.

She has certainly captured the limelight with loads of publicity in the media. Fuelled by some ludicrous whingeing that people were picking on her over expenses because she is a woman.

For purposes of research I did watch the sort of pornography that's available on the internet, Smith tells Nicky Campbell: One of the most interesting things... the people that work in the industry, I liked them more than I thought I would.

Update: Counselling for those who can’t tell the fantasy from reality

27th February 2011.See article from dailymail.co.uk

Expenses fantasist Jacqui Smith will tell the sex industry: Put your money where your mouth is. Fund real sex education in schools, promote safe sex and invest in relationship counselling for those who can't tell the fantasy from reality.

David Turtle, of the anti-porn nutters at Mediawatch UK, retorted: The adult entertainment industry is only concerned about its profits. It's naive to think it is going to be effective in helping teenagers who are at risk from this material. If Ms Smith was so concerned about the issue, why didn't she do more to deal with it when she was Home Secretary?

Smith also talks in the show about rows over porn she had with her husband Richard Timney. She said: Somebody I care a lot about and who cares about me has watched pornography. I have argued with him about it and he takes a different view from me.

...As I challenged what I was seeing at the Erotica show and on the covers of DVDs I was, of course, challenged back about my lack of personal knowledge about pornography. I've seen magazines and books, but I had never watched a film.

So the next weird outing was to watch porn on a borrowed laptop. I already knew that porn was widespread on the internet, but I was genuinely surprised and shocked at how easily available it is: no proof of age, no credit card, no need to identify yourself. And, as I learned at the British Board of Film Classification, there is no classification, so no restriction on what you can view -- group sex, double penetration, anal sex, scenes filmed to look as if strangers were being asked for sex in the street, some use of restraints -- there seemed to be little limit on what was freely available.

As Home Secretary, I changed the law to criminalise the possession of violent and extreme pornographic images, but pornographers continue to push the boundaries. Even in the pornography submitted for classification by the BBFC, 25 per cent of films need to be cut -- usually because they show women being forcibly restrained, abused or injured.

...Read the full article

Offsite: Coffee and Pastries with Jacqui

See also Behind the scenes of Porn Again from strangethingsarehappening.com

The BBC introduces the programme as:

In a documentary featuring explicit language and sexual content, former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith investigates pornography, meeting those who make, watch and commentate on it.

5th March 2011. See review from newstatesman.com by Steven Baxter

So we got to hear Jacqui's reaction to bukkake -- All she is, that woman, is a receptacle. Is this bukkake? I think it's horrible --, a chandelier made of penises and her first ever viewing of a porn film. It's anal sex with a man with a very big penis... She doesn't look as if she's being forced to do anything she doesn't want to... there's not a lot of story... says Jacqui.

It's quite odd to think of a middle-aged married person never having seen pornography, or having experienced it; even odder still to think of a public representative or politician legislating on matters they haven't directly experienced. After all, Smith went out on the streets to see crime fighting for herself while home secretary, so the curiosity is there, beyond a photo opportunity, surely.

As one interviewee points out, here's someone who legislated as home secretary without ever having seen adult entertainment; Jacqui's response is that she didn't try hard drugs but she had to legislate on that too.

But this was a documentary very much about opinions, rather than evidence. Throughout, Jacqui was keen to present her idea that pornography had a deleterious effect on users (there's that drugs link again) without ever really getting to the bottom of why she felt that way.

...Read the full review

5th March 2011. See review from Melon Farmers Forum by Phantom

The supposed piece was quite hideous.

I kid you not, at one point she consulted a professor for feminist liberation and theology . Yes. Feminism and theology in one package. A double whammy.

Of course she also interviewed the left's ever convenient intellectual Allan de Botton. Anyone who knows of him, knows that he is an avid champion of social interventionism. In short, he argues that we need nannying for our own good. So what a coincidence that Smith chose to interview him on porn. His conclusion? Porn needs banning for our own good. Anyone surprised? Please speak up if you are.

To prove herself even handed, she interviewed porn producers, primarily Phil and Cathy Barry. But that was more a question of who they were and what they produced. Not the nasty, foreign stuff . There seemed little doubt that such appearances of the pornsters were not there to add to the argument but to try and make the program more entertaining. In short they were the light relief who added sauce to the program. For rather tellingly no one was interviewed who would argue on a deeper level why porn should be legal. No one was allowed to question the idea of prohibition. There was never a serious pro argument forwarded by anyone. But plenty of contra .

All the while, did Jacqui Smith talk to trafficked women, forced into porn? Any crack addicts appearing solely to feed their habit? Oddly, no. None of it. After all, where would she find these fictitious creatures? But of course, there was everlasting editorial about her concerns .

Again, there was the endless stream of verbiage about what effect this pornography is having on the viewers. Was any science applied to this? Why bother with science if you can just speak into the mike and voice concern ?

...Read the full review

Comment: Mediawatch-UK have their two pennyworth

9th March 2011. See article from christian.org.uk  

David Turtle, spokesman for Mediawatch UK, said:

The adult entertainment industry is only concerned about its profits.

It's naive to think it is going to be effective in helping teenagers who are at risk from this material.

If Ms Smith was so concerned about the issue, why didn't she do more to deal with it when she was Home Secretary?

Offsite: BBC must be unbalanced to broadcast Jacqui Smith's anti-porn propaganda

9th March 2011. See article from theregister.co.uk by Jane Fae ozimek, Thanks to pbr

The BBC was today accused of ignoring its own charter requirement to offer balance by coming down firmly on the side of opt-in in respect of internet porn regulation.

An alliance of the concerned drawn from academics and individuals representing the adult film industry added their voices to a chorus of dissent, claiming that Porn Again , a documentary produced by former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and aired last Thursday, was biased, inaccurate, and went out of its way to sideline any voices at odds with its central thesis that pornography is harmful.

Speaking to The Register today, Jerry Barnett, Chairman of the Adult Industry Trade Association (AIT), said: The documentary appears to have been a piece of pro-censorship propaganda, backed by the full establishment weight of the BBC, at a time when freedom of speech is under concerted attack from multiple directions, by our government and many others around the world.

...Read the full article