Porn: Pleasure of the Financial TV News Business

[Joanne98]

Most "new media" reviewers (OK, "old media" reviewers too) have written off CNBC's penetrating new expose, "Porn: Business of Pleasure" as a tawdry ploy to boost declining viewership. But, as usual, CNBC's critics are all wet dead wrong.

Leave aside their undercurrent of sanctimony (I mean, c'mon, who hasn't occasionally watched Trish Regan with the sound off?). It's been a slow financial news year, making porn a big story. True to CNBC's high journalistic standards, Melissa Lee (who opens the show in the middle of Times Square wearing what seems like nothing but a trench coat) gives it appropriately in-depth coverage. (For those unfamiliar with Ms. Lee, no, she's not a bukkake actress. She's a serious journalist, who, fortunately for CNBC viewers, took some time off from "preparing for the biggest business story of the century: the rise of China," to cover what CNBC apparently considers the second biggest business story of the century.)

The special documentary (which, in the interest of public enlightenment, CNBC has replayed several times since its recent premiere) is more than just a "soft-core movie trailer" which titillates viewers with racy adult film titles like "Golden Guzzlers 7," "Fists of Fury 4" and "Kudlow Does Cramer 2." It tackles the important issue of gender equality in business by reporting on, in CNBC's words, "women on top" in the porn industry, and lets viewers get "up close and personal" with adult film stars like Jesse Jane, the proud recipient of the adult film academy's Best New Performer Without a Gag Reflex award.

It also presents important business statistics, like the surprising fact that pornography has an estimated 28,000 viewers per second, and the even more surprising fact that second-men actually exist. And it provides thoughtful insight, like one producer's declaration that, "Porn has been around since the caveman. It's not going anywhere." Ever subtle, CNBC left it to viewers to notice porn's similarity to GM's business model.

Viewers may be shocked, shocked, that internet porn -- which is mostly free -- is thriving. But, with adult DVD sales down 30-50% in the last year (only slightly less than CNBC's audience), the business of porn apparently has earnings dysfunction. (Which, for some reason, left many viewers wondering when Vikram Pandit took over the porn industry.) The one bright spot is that sales of "mobile porn" (for the busy pervert on the go) are expected to double by 2013. (And no, that doesn't explain what BofA's board was doing last year during those boring meetings on the Merrill merger proposal.)

The show also addresses all the pertinent penal issues, such as the legal definition of obscenity. Obscene material (1) "appeals to prurient interests", (2) is "patently offensive" and (3) "lacks serious literary, scientific, political or artistic value." Curiously, many smut peddlers have asked why CNBC hasn't been prosecuted yet.

Hopefully, CNBC's brave documentary will be a clarion call to all wanna-be financial reporters of the "new media" (yes, that means you ZH) to end their pessimistic reporting on irrelevancies like the Fed's balance sheet, and delve deeply into the economic topics that really matter, like porn. Inspired by CNBC's example, I myself intend to do a follow-up expose by going undercover in the porn industry. I'm told I won't even need a pseudonym.


http://www.zerohedge.com/article/porn-pleasure-financial-tv-news-business

:rofl: