Hating the media is our reason for living. And we think intentionally misleading news stories are almost as pornographic as pornography. Like the one ABC News ran the other night.
At IHateTheMedia.com, we admit right up front that what we do is commentary. On a good day, mildly amusing commentary. We would never call ourselves a news organization, and after this so-called news report, maybe ABC News shouldn’t either. “Porn in the USA: Conservatives Are Biggest Consumers,” ABC’s report, said “Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious.”
The background
According to a study (view PDF) conducted by Benjamin Edelman of the Harvard Business School, there’s very little difference between porn consumption in red states and blue states. In fact, Edelman concludes that “When it comes to adult entertainment, it seems people are more the same than different…The differences here are not so stark.”
Unfortunately, ABC started its report by stating a starkly contrary conclusion, then went off on a circuitous safari in search of data to support it. In reality, there’s absolutely nothing in the study to support ABC’s flimsy conclusion that conservatives consume more porn than liberals, because there’s nothing in the study that asked the respondents if they were conservative or liberal. Nothing.
But above and beyond ABC’s outrageous claims, we believe the study itself has serious problems.
For example, the study tracked only paid porn services and completely overlooked the vast quantity of free porn consumed online. That decision, it seems to us, immediately throws all the survey’s results into question. It’s like describing the Grand Canyon after viewing it through a keyhole.
Our point of view as seen through the same keyhole
A sense of entitlement –- the concept that you’re entitled to get something for free for which others have to pay –- seems to us to be a purely liberal concept. You name it -welfare, healthcare, housing, music, open source software – liberals always seem to think it should be free.
For example, Napster users thought they shouldn’t have to pay for music because “the labels make too much money.” Class warfare is a liberal concept through and through.
On the other hand, many people thought Napster violated copyright laws and didn’t use its service because they thought it was no different than stealing. Support for law and order is a conservative concept, through and through.
Our conclusion, but probably not the one
you thought we were going to reach
While we think it’s quite possible that conservatives buy more porn, we’re also think it’s quite possible that liberals actually consume more porn. The difference, we think, is that conservatives pay for it, but liberals don’t. After all, why would anyone think that the same people who want free healthcare, free welfare and free mortgages wouldn’t also want free porn.
A few additional considerations
According to Edelman’s study, some of the factors that influence porn purchases include age (people over 65 consume less, people 15-24 consume more), education (those with college educations tend to consume more porn), and location (urban residents consume more porn).
Every demographic study shows that Democrat voters skew younger than Republicans. Shouldn’t we then assume that Democrats consume more porn?
We’re always told that Democrats are more educated than Republicans. Shouldn’t we then assume that Democrats consume more porn?
Democrats dominate urban areas and Republicans dominate everywhere else. Shouldn’t we then assume that Democrats consume more porn?
A final thought
We believe the only conclusion that can accurately be drawn from Edelman’s study is that no conclusions can accurately be drawn from Edelman’s study.
Unless you want to draw conclusions that have no basis in fact. Like ABC did.
Now then, does anyone know any of those free porn sites?
