Newt Gingrich, Savior of Internet Porn?

What's the Internet for? As anyone who's seen Avenue Q knows, it's for porn. And for that, we may owe at least partial thanks to fast-rising GOP primary contender Newt Gingrich.

At Mother Jones, Tim Murphy reports on 1995 legislation put forth by Democratic Sen. Jim Exon intended to tamp down on Internet "indecency":

Exon introduced an amendment to the Communications Decency Act criminalizing the transmission of "indecent" materials over the internet. In case any stone remained unturned, it went after internet service providers as well: Email or distribute nude photos—or even just type one of the "seven words you can't say on television"—and you could face a $100,000 fine or up to two years in prison.

To illustrate the danger of internet porn, Exon compiled an album of graphic images he'd found on the web—including one of a man engaging in intercourse with a German shepherd—in a blue binder with a red "caution" sticker, and invited his colleagues to take a look.

Exon's measure passed the Senate with 86 votes. The appeal was clear: No elected official wanted to be seen as voting for smut. The Contract With America—Republicans' promise to voters in advance of their landslide win in the 1994 elections—had even contained a provision vowing to crack down on child pornography.

But the bill wasn't narrowly targeted at child pornography. Indeed, it might have made all sorts of popular culture illegal to distribute on the web.

…As Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) pointed out in a particularly inspired floor speech, the law could even have criminalized the online distribution of Gingrich's first novel, 1945, in which a "pouting sex kitten"—who is also a Nazi—seduces a White House aide in order to extract classified information. It would also have prohibited most non-Will Smith forms of hip-hop.

"[The amendment] is clearly a violation of free speech and it's a violation of the right of adults to communicate with each other," Gingrich said at the time. "I don't agree with it…" In an interview with British journalist David Frost, he elaborated on his position. "I think there you have a perfect right on a noncensorship basis to intervene decisively against somebody who would prey upon children. And that I would support very intensely. It's very different than trying to censor willing adults."

With Gingrich's support, Rep. Chris Cox (R-Calif.) and Rep. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) crafted an alternative proposal that eschewed punitive measures for online wardrobe malfunctions and expletives, and instead emphasized private, parental education initiatives. The bill passed the House overwhelmingly. Although the Senate's version was part of the law that eventually passed, it was overturned by the Supreme Court the next year in Reno v. ACLU. What remained was Gingrich's language.

I suspect this was more a product of Gingrich's geeky enthusiasm for technology than an ardent belief in the absolute right to free speech. Indeed, in other circumstances, he's pushed to restrict freedom of expression, suggesting, as Jacob Sullum noted yesterday, that we ought to have a "serious debate about the First Amendment" focused on ways to reduce terrorists "capacity to use free speech." And in 1987, he cosponsored the Fairness in Broadcasting Act, which was an attempt to codify the Fairness Doctrine—a speech regulation which required broadcasters to devote equal time to discussions of political issues—just as the FCC was abandoning it.

On the other hand, maybe Gingrich just has a healthy respect for porn: In 2009, his Business Defense and Advisory Council named the president of a porn DVD superstore entrepreneur of the year.  Gingrich's staff later indicated that the award was a mistake.

Read Jacob Sullum on Gingrich's less-than-spectacular civil liberties record.