Attorney General Eric Holder No. 1 on Morality in Media's List of 'Sex Exploiters'
Watchdog Releases 'Dirty Dozen List' of Alleged Top Pornography Facilitators
Morality in Media has determined in its 2013 "Dirty Dozen List" of individuals and organizations that Attorney General Eric Holder is the leading facilitator of pornography, which the nonprofit says is linked directly to violence against women and sex trafficking.
"Holder's actions keep the porn industry thriving. He not only refuses to enforce obscenity laws currently on the books that prohibit the distribution of hardcore pornography, but he even disbanded the office charged with enforcement," said Patrick A. Trueman, president of Morality in Media, in a statement on the organization's Porn Harms website.
Trueman served as chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) at the U.S. Department of Justice where, until 1993, he supervised the prosecution of obscenity crimes, child sex crimes and child pornography.
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In 2011, Holder shut down the DOJ's Obscenity Task Force, a special unit developed during former President George W. Bush's administration to prosecute distributors of hardcore pornography, and folded the task force into the CEOS. While President Obama's administration said the move was to make better use of resources and strengthen the likelihood for prosecution in pornography-related cases, some lawmakers claimed the decision showed a lax attitude toward porn crimes.
"Attorney General Holder told the Judiciary Committee last year that this task force was the centerpiece of the strategy to combat adult obscenity," Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch said in a statement at the time.
"Rather than initiate a single new case since President Obama took office, however, the only development in this area has been the dismantling of the task force. As the toxic waste of obscenity continues to spread and harm everyone it touches, it appears the Obama administration is giving up without a fight."
Morality in Media says that its purpose with the Dirty Dozen List, which includes social networks like Twitter and Facebook, is to "target, expose and shame 12 top enablers of our country's pornography pandemic."
The organization, founded in 1962 by an interfaith group of clergy in New York City, combats pornography and indecency through public education and enforcement of the law. Morality in Media is currently based in Washington, D.C., and led by attorneys with representatives of various faiths on its board.
Morality Media's Dirty Dozen List:
- Attorney General Eric Holder - Shut down the section in charge of prosecuting obscenity cases.
- Comcast - Provides explicit material on basic cable packages accessible by the click of your remote.
- Facebook - Failure to enforce their own rules makes it one of the top places to share pornography.
- Google Play - Unlike Apple, Android phones put pornography in the hands of any young child that can download an app.
- LodgeNet Interactive Corporation - Provides hardcore pornography to major hotels, even though current law prohibits the distribution of obscene pornography.
- Hilton - A major hotel provider of hardcore pornography.
- American Library Association - Pushes libraries not to use any Internet filters to prevent children from stumbling across porn while doing their homework.
- Twitter - States in its policy they "do not regulate Tweets … including pornography."
- Wikipedia - Does nothing to wipe their content of obscene material.
- Cosmo - Relies on sexually explicit content to sell magazines to young girls.
- Barnes & Noble - Sells adult and child erotica.
- Department of Defense - Pervasive porn causes harassment in the workplace, addiction, and problems at home.
