Porn, Bailouts, and Larry Flynt

Founder of Hustler, Larry Flynt, is in two recent news stories. First, he is concerned that his nephews, Jimmy Flynt II and Dustin Flynt, are making ‘inferior’ porn that doesn’t live up to the Flynt family name. Second, in a publicity stunt, he’s recently asked Congress for a $5 billion bailout.

Larry’s concern is that his nephews’ new adult entertainment company, Flynt Media, is only trying to cash in on his hard-earned reputation for ‘quality’ porn. “To come into the adult entertainment business and use my name not only confuses people who buy my products, but if they’re not maintaining a certain quality, it could also hurt my name,” Flynt told the Los Angeles Times. Flynt filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court over this issue.

Is this because Larry is concerned about porn revenue? Perhaps. He’s recently asked Congress for a $5 billion dollar bailout (along with Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis). That’s right: first it was the banks, then the big three, and now the world of porn.

Even though Flynt says the industry is in no financial danger, he says that the nation needs sex to cope through these hard times.

“People are too depressed to be sexually active. This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex. With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It’s time for congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America. The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly.”

If this isn’t a sad commentary on the world we live in, I don’t know what is.