PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- An adult movie distributorship, responding to a federal pornography report and what it calls a widespread censorship movement, says it will challenge obscenity laws nationwide and push for a congressional investigation of censorship.
Adult View Corp., acting through its National Alliance for Freedom division, said it has asked the American Civil Liberties Union to help challenge obscenity laws in the 50 states on grounds they are an 'illegal and unconstitutional form of thought control.'
Alliance President Jack Potter said Sunday he also asked House Speaker Thomas O'Neill to begin a congressional investigation into a censorship movement led by groups in Rhode Island, Tupelo, Miss., and Phoenix.
'This movement is being aided and abetted by U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese and the Meese Commission,' Potter said. 'The alarming part of this movement is each group is an open bigot and anti-Semitic hate group.'
He said the Rhode Island-based alliance, which claims 8 million supporters, asked O'Neill to request Meese to step aside during the investigation.
Potter said the group plans a $50 million suit against nearly all the nation's cable television firms, claiming they have been pressured by the 'censorship' groups not to use Adult View films.
'We are taking these actions due to the fact it has become clear to us the cable industry will not fight back' against such groups, Potter said.
The Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, charged with assessing the impact of the $8 billion-a-year pornography business on American life, released its report last week, urging citizens to take private action against pornographers, including setting up special units to protest and monitor their activities.
'This Meese Commission is just a big farce,' Potter said, charging it was created by groups seeking to start a national censorship movement.
He said the drive was led by three groups: Citizens for Decency Through Law in Phoenix, National Federation for Decency in Tupelo, Miss., and a group in Rhode Island led by the Rev. Ennio Cugini and Harold Doran.
