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Guess what's already on the video iPod?
—Posted by Celeste Ward |
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November 8, 2005 | Permalink |
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There's nothing especially remarkable about this article. It is, in fact, common. It is also symptomatic of a truth very few businesspeople contemplate, but which is for me a kind of obsession. I'm talking about the utter disavowal of pornography as an important industry in this country. Set aside your moral arguments (he said, as if THAT were not the heart of the matter), let's talk only in the coldly-reasoned terms of business.
I say it now aloud, and (as always) in the hopes that a few more will hear, and perhaps one or two of those understand:
PORNOGRAPHY IS THE LARGEST INDUSTRY IN AMERICA. PERIOD.
"Porn is no doubt a big business on the Web." -- writes AP's Ron Harris in the article referenced above.
Is it just me, or doesn't he sound a little bit unsure. He speaks of it as if it were a quaint, little cottage industry, akin to a wooden shoe atelier in Amsterdam -- as either an anachronism trundling along, still, against the expectations of wise advice, or, as one of those nostalgia-inspiring retro businesses.
No!
I tell you, because I know, yes, because I am one of them, this is very incorrect. Not only is the industry's top-line a figure that would startle even the most self-important, billionaire CEO in Palo Alto, but the influence, effect and contributions made by the pornography industry in this country are beyond the reckoning of our finest economists.
Why?
The answer is embarrassing. You don't know squat about America's BIGGEST INDUSTRY simply because it makes you feel funny to think about what we do, and/or because you're scared (or don't know how) to give it your serious attention. It is the one product that so handicaps the consumer.
For a long time, the industry was happy (delighted, in fact) that no serious scrutiny came its way from the analyst community or the press. Better, you didn't know what we were doing. These are all privately held companies, conducting an unspeakably profitable enterprise. Well, you know how some people can be when they see a little too much success. And, of course, it has never helped that some people in this country equate us with crack dealers. Hey, when you have 4 Bentleys, who gives a shit what Ted Koppel thinks, right.
Well, things have changed, and there's a lot more at stake than the livelihoods of a few sleazy pornographers.
The censorial effort, no surprise to you I'm sure, has been cranked up during the Bush tenure. They're no longer going after us with obscenity charges, which the First Amendment has answered so well for so long. They're getting sneaky (even for the government), they're taking advantage of the fact that mainstream business thinks of us (when you think of us) as a quasi-legitimate stain on the face of American commerce. They're taking advantage of the fact that, though every (yes, EVERY, I'm daring to say) American has used and enjoyed pornography; they would rather stand by and see us lynched than say so.
I'm interested in correcting these misperceptions. I have inside information, fascinating stories, and I am ideologically enraged by what the government is trying to pull here.
jack mardack
president
profitLABINC.com
Posted by: jack mardack | Nov 13, 2005 1:10:16 PM
