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One of the oldest tricks in the book is to pander to the audience with a sex story by claiming you are only “covering” a matter of public interest. Rita Cosby, who is fast becoming known as the “Porn Queen” on MSNBC- TV, tried this out on her December 15 show. But she ran into a buzzsaw?an anti-porn activist by the name of Dr. Gail Dines, who saw through what Cosby was trying to do and blew the whistle.

Dines appeared on the show late in the program after Cosby had featured various “stars” from the pornography industry who “cash in on their good looks in search for instant fame, stardom, and of course, money.” Talking to somebody named Harvey Kaplan about using the latest technology to download porn, Cosby gushed that it sounds like the business is “booming.” Golly gee.

Appearing late in the program, Dr. Dines, a professor of sociology and women’s studies, said, “I would like to talk about what’s just passed for a news program has actually been a 50-minute promotion for the pornography industry. And I think in the media you have more responsibility…”

Responsibility? In the media? Yes, we agree with you, Professor. But this is MSNBC, which is becoming a porn channel, in so far as Rita Cosby’s show is concerned. Cosby saw where the professor was going and tried to nip it in the bud. Cosby interrupted to claim that she was merely addressing pornography “from a business perspective” and “By no means are we promoting pornography.  Let me just make that clear.”

Oh sure. Cosby was conducting scholarly research into the porn industry by interviewing a “veteran porn actor” and porn directors, as if they are all players in a legitimate business and there was nothing immoral or sleazy about getting paid to have dangerous sex.

Dines shot back: “Yes, you are.” She accused Cosby of using the first 50 minutes of the show to “promote pornography, in that you did not really get at what the industry’s about, the reality of women’s lives in the industry.” Dines said Cosby was guilty of “shoddy reporting.”

No, Professor, it wasn’t shoddy reporting. It was deliberate deception. Cosby knows this approach is sleazy but she is determined to get an audience, no matter how low she has to sink. So she camouflages her interest in porn as an audience-getting device by insisting that she is simply doing a story about the business. 

I plead guilty to falling for the ploy. But I am a media analyst and have to pay attention to these things. I also had to report that Dr. Dines fought back, exposing Cosby as the manipulator she is. Where is Cosby’s concern for the women whose lives are ruined in the porn business? Does she have any integrity?

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