Entertainment

Larry Flynt: Romney can’t take away your porn, even if he tries

Steven Nelson Associate Editor
Font Size:

Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt told The Daily Caller that despite Mitt Romney’s promise to bring back federal obscenity prosecutions, the country has changed and Romney would fail if he tried to crack down on pornography as president.

“Romney can have all the plans he wants to about prosecuting pornography, but that train has already left the station,” said Flynt. “I’m not saying that he isn’t serious about it, but it’s doubtful that he’d follow through if he’s in office because his advisers will tell him that he can’t win.”

Currently, authorities can prosecute pornographers for obscenity, but a jury must decide that material violates subjective “community standards” to make it unlawful.

Federal prosecutions tapered off when President Bill Clinton took office and remained rare during President George W. Bush’s two terms. According to a former Justice Department official, no new obscenity cases have been initiated by the Obama Justice Department.

Patrick Trueman, a former porn prosecutor in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, told TheDC that obscenity laws are “still good” and that Romney’s campaign has assured him that Romney would renew federal prosecutions.

Flynt isn’t buying it. He said Romney’s public promise during the Republican primaries to ensure “strict enforcement of our nation’s obscenity laws” was “an idle threat made for political reasons” and added, “I don’t give it much thought at all.”

“I think they would probably prosecute” if Romney appointed eager anti-porn officials to the Justice Department, said Flynt, “but they have nothing to do with the success of the prosecution.”

“The advent of the Internet has made it a much smaller community that we live in,” he added, suggesting that it would no longer be easy to prosecute big-city pornographers in more socially conservative parts of the country.

“Most of these prosecutors are idiots,” Flynt added. “You know: ‘screw the public.’” Pornography, he said, “is a buzzword to enhance their political profile.”

Flynt said it was “a wise decision” for the Obama administration to initiate no new obscenity prosecutions, “because if pornography was a serious threat you would see prosecutions from the Obama administration. They’re not laying off it because they’re liberals,” he said. “That’s ridiculous.”

Romney’s promise to enforce obscenity laws will probably ammount to nothing if he’s elected, Flynt predicted. (SEE ALSO: Romney campaign quietly promised ‘vigorous’ porn crackdown, Reagan prosecutor says)

“I’m not saying it’s empty,” Flynt said, “but it’s definitely for political reasons. I’m not saying he won’t try to appease the religious sects in this country, primarily the evangelical groups, that are always trying to push for these prosecutions.”

Follow Steven on Twitter