The Daily Beast’s Strange Obsession with Porn
The Daily Beast has a thing about porn. It seems rare for it to go more than a couple of days without providing another story. This is interesting, because it is one of the most influential news sites among progressives, but it seems likely that only porn industry sites would have more stories about the subject than The Beast.
Some are legitimate, talking about the dangers of it and of those that are in the industry. For example, it has numerous stories about allegedly abusive actors and others in the industry that have a significant reach in the mainstream. For example, a recent article on Ron Jeremy notes that “Porn star Ron Jeremy was charged on Tuesday with raping three women and sexually assaulting a fourth.
“Jeremy, 67, now faces eight counts—including forcible rape, forcible penetration, and forcible oral copulation—for the separate incidents, which date back to 2014, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.” Obviously, in light of #MeToo concerns, this is relevant and important.
There is also a recent story about the “meltdown” of the porn industry. There is an old saying that is certainly true, “there is a business side to everything”. That certainly includes the porn industry.
It notes a phenomenon that is ubiquitous in all industries. “Adult performers are entering a new era of awareness—and their empowerment may shape the future of porn. When COVID-19 shut down the adult entertainment industry, performers fell back on many of the things they were already doing, creating and selling content directly to their fans. Realizing professional porn isn’t necessary for a lucrative career, many performers are now making even more money in a safe environment they control. For as many options as porn performers have, the directors of porn (who are not also talent themselves) have far less. Where directors and companies fit in a post-COVID-19 world may very well be dictated by adult performers.” This type of story transcends all industries. To many, it could be interesting to see how the porn industry is navigating it.
Others are less congruent for a mainstream publication. Here are a few of the stories, out of hundreds, found on the site.
The Beast seems to delight in the “fact” that “Everyone is Watching Porn on Netflix.” I guess it is interesting in as far as the fact that most people would never consider Netflix to be a porn OTT platform.
The approval of .XXX as a domain. It might be considered an industry high point.
The Beast seems very interested in the political leanings of porn stars like the pro-Trump Brandi Love, or Sara Jay (who has Barack Obama as a fan), and maybe the most famous of all — Stormy Daniels — whose battles with Donald Trump are legendary.
Regarding Love, the Beast notes: “In a column published on April 22, Charlie Peters began his ill-advised essay as follows: ‘Every now and then, the modern world produces a trend so ghastly you can’t help but sit back and think, would a global Islamic Caliphate really be that bad?’ The story did not get much better from there.
“On April 30, veteran porn actress Brandi Love—herself a pro-Trump conservative—responded to Peters’ absurd piece with an op-ed in The Federalist that took it apart it piece by piece, citing everything from First Amendment rights to Republicans’ well-documented love of porn to how camming sites like OnlyFans have provided many people with feelings of comfort during the novel coronavirus crisis. (Heck, even Beyoncé’s a fan.).”
It appears Sara Jay was uncomfortable with President Obama as a fan. At the very least it was awkward. The Beast asked in an interview:
“When did you first realize that Barack Obama followed you on Twitter?”
She answered, “Around 2008 it was brought to my attention, and I tried to sweep it under the rug. I like to give people their privacy and it shouldn’t be national news that he enjoys Sara Jay porn. I don’t really want the Secret Service following me around either.
“I’ve been trying to keep it quiet but every now and again someone brings it up. I’m like, “Don’t make this into something, it’s not OK.” I was a supporter of Barack Obama when he ran for president and I probably followed him at a time when Twitter was in its infancy. It was probably during that time of, Oh, you follow me and I’ll follow you back, kind of thing. I’m going to assume that’s how it happened. If not maybe he and Michelle like Sara Jay porn, I’d like to think that anyway.”
The Beast seemed to be very concerned about the porn director that created Anti-Islamic films. Does this mean that if you are anti-Islamic, you are pro-porn? Hmmm. Or maybe it is uncomfortable for the porn obsessed Beast to discover that someone who appears to be anti-Islamic.
The list goes on. It seems disproportionate for a general news site. Good luck finding a site that doesn’t specifically focus on the industry having more stories on the topic of pornography than The Daily Beast.
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