ROB BLACK'S LETTER TO LARRY FLYNT :: Simply Jimmy D :: Breakin' News or Breakin' Balls: It's all the same to me!

jimmyd _writes "There’s an open letter from Rob Black to Larry Flynt over at AVN.com. It’s interesting reading and I’ll admit that Black scores some points—at least with me—that should be of interest to anyone and everyone in this business.

But in my opinion, Black’s opening paragraph doesn’t ring quite true.

Black writes: “As I followed Larry Flynt’s career and watched him fight for First Amendment rights, going so far as to take a bullet for what he believed in, now, 30 years later, it seems, based on his recent quotes in Reason Magazine, Larry shoots that same bullet through my heart and he turns his back on (a) fight that he gave up so much for.”

I guess, once again, I’m going to have to call a spade a spade here: Larry Flynt did NOT fight for First Amendment rights. Larry Flynt fought for his right to make a living off of a product that he believed was (and he still believes is) protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

I don’t think I’m splitting hairs when I’m pointing out the difference between fighting for an ideal and fighting for a livelihood.

There are many ways people can make a living; porn’s just one of them. And while most people make their living from work that is considered by almost everyone to be perfectly-legal work, there are also people making their living off of work that is decidedly illegal. (e.g., Thieves, con artists, extortionists and others who live, work, and bottom-feed at the lowest levels of society, right up society's ladder to those who live and work and eat at the highest and most elite corporate and political levels.)

Unfortunately for pornographers like Larry Flynt, Rob Black, and yeah, myself, we work in a gray area where the legality of what we do, i.e., what we produce and sell, is sometimes a matter of an interpretation of the law. Certainly, there are many who fervently believe that what we do is legal, legitimate, and protected by the 1rst Amendment; I'm one of them. But there are also those who believe otherwise. And unfortunately for us, some of those who believe otherwise are sometimes in positions of power and authority to question the legality of what we do.

So let's all remember this: We chose the lives we lead and we chose to do what it is we do. And we did so knowing that there are risks. And let's also remember that none of us, and I mean NONE OF US, chose to be pornographers because of some desire to test the meaning and/or the protections afforded by the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

I don't think I'm going too far out on a limb when I say that we also understand the following equation: "The greater the risks, the greater the rewards." Larry Flynt knows this. Rob Black knows this. Hell, even a dumbshit like me knows this.

When Rob Black decided to 'push the envelope' and take greater risks, he knew there were greater possible rewards for doing so. But now he wants to conveniently forget the part about there being "greater risks," i.e., greater legal risks. You see, now that those risks have bitten Black on the ass, he accuses Larry Flynt of being a sell-out because Larry won't jump in and try to bail Black out the way Larry jumped in to bail himself out. I wonder if that means Mr. Black intended to share in the rewards with Larry if the risks hadn't bitten his ass?

Somehow, I don't think so.

Anyway, back to what I was first saying: When those in power question the legality of what we do it sometimes results in indictments. And when it does, it then becomes a matter of them proving—in a court of law—that what we do is illegal and unprotected by the 1rst Amendment, while we attempt to prove that what we’re doing is legal and protected.

Larry Flynt spent much of his life preserving and defending his notion that what he was doing, what he was producing, and what he was selling was protected by the 1rst Amendment. Rob Black is currently doing the same thing. But although these arguments relate to and revolve about the 1rst Amendment, they are not idealistic arguments whose purpose is to protect the sanctity of the First Amendment. They are, instead, arguments designed to defend a belief that what we do—what we make our money from—is protected.

I’ve met very few pornographers who have fought for the preservation of the 1rst Amendment for any other reason than personal, self-serving reasons. And I’m not saying this in a derogatory way. I believe the First Amendment protects what I do for a living. I would fight, if I had to, to prove that point; but I would also admit that I would be doing so for self-serving reasons, and not act or pretend as if I were fighting the ‘good fight’ for some altruistic beliefs.

A sad observation about our industry is this: I’ve found it quite difficult to find more than a handful of pornographers who—while espousing their beliefs in the purity of the 1rst Amendment—could even come close to quoting what the 1rst Amendment says:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

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