Porn Valley- I talked to an exasperated Mike Ross this afternoon. Ross, a state lobbyist, is painfully aware of AVN’s reporting that the Leslie Bill AB 2978 is dead in committee- at least for this year. Not so says Ross, who’s highly critical of both AVN and the reporter [Scott Ross] assigned to the story. I believe Ross used the term “fucked up” to describe AVN’s reportorial bias in the matter.

Ross claims that the story is incomplete, misleading and reflective of self-interests being served. “AVN has no reporting ethics at all,” contends Ross. “The reporter didn’t understand it [the issue] and I did 40 minutes with him today. He tried to get me pinned into all kinds of stuff.” Ross said the interview was never finished but that didn’t stop AVN from running with its story.

“The object of the bill was to get a hearing,” Ross said. “They told us we’ve got a hearing [this summer]. There’s various things that go on at different times of the year,” Ross explained. “What’s going on, is, we just finished up all the deadlines for bills to get out of policy committee in house of origin. They then go to financial policy committee. If this bill had made it a crime, then the police would have been involved and it would have had to go to appropriation.

“Technically the bill is dead because it didn’t get out of committee,” Ross agrees. “But you can ask for a rules waiver. You can amend another bill; you can pull the bill out of committee on to the assembly floor based on a vote of a certain number of people in the house of origin. But the thing of importance, here, is the committee has agreed to have a hearing. So they’re going to set a date.”

Ross said he told the AVN reporter, “Look you’re not going to back me into a corner and you’re not going to try to make me look bad and I’m not going to answer your questions. I’m not going to deal with it. I don’t need to talk to you; you need to talk to me. He’s, like, ‘ well I can listen to Kat.’ I said, you know something? You do that, you’ve got a problem. Kat thinks that she’s making the argument to protect the industry. But in reality she’s making the argument to regulate the industry because every time she stands up- or Sharon for that matter- and says we’ve got this thing contained, and another person comes up with it, that shows that it’s not contained.

“Kat Sunlove’s big argument in committee,” continues Ross, “was that Tim Leslie didn’t pick up the phone and call her and say I have this bill you should be opposed to it. That’s like me calling an attorney and saying I’m suing your client you should ber opposed to me. Same fucking thing.”

Ross says there’s an ongoing problem in the adult industry.

“That’s misinformation, censorship and protection of self-interests,” he states. Ross also advised the AVN reporter to step back out of his role and out from Mark Kernes’ thumb so he could think. “He would then be able to understand what I’m talking about but he chooses not to.”

“This doesn’t mean that this bill isn’t going to resurface as another,” Ross states. Technically, the bill could be revived under six different sets of circumstances, according to Ross.

“The goal is to get to a conference committee so both houses of the legislature can turn around and do something. The key is knowing the rules and exploring the possibilities to keep the bill alive.”

“The problem, here,” Ross goes on to say, “is that the people who are reading that story are saying AVN knows everything. The reality is AVN is only listening to one source.”

Ross said if it’s felt that a bill is needed, it could conceivably move through the house in four days.

“It all depends on timing, how you pull it together and what the issue is,” Ross states. “The reality is that the legislature can do just about that it wants. This bill is still alive. It’s still in play, and all they have to do is wave the rules and rule waivers are extremely common. To say that the bill is dead and nothing’s going to pass, is putting your head in the sand like an ostrich. The reality is a good lobbyist, a good legislator or a smart committee can have that bill passed in five days and on he governor’s desk.”

The wild card says Ross is wondering what the governor- who is an actor- will do.

“Would he sign this bill? And that’s even a bigger issue because he hasn’t weighed in on the issue yet.”