Now you know why the icon of the establisment the N.Y. Times writes so much about porn. According to this article in the Boston Herald, the Times is partnered up with a Swedish Porn distributor.

New York- Four years after printing a page-one report spotlighting its media rivals’ ties to the porn industry, the New York Times Co. is poised to slip into bed with a Swedish pornography distributor. The Times Co. and Boston Globe, under a deal to buy 49 percent of Metro Boston, would instantly become corporate cousins with Modern Times Group – a Swedish company that has aggressively asserted its right to telecast pornography throughout Scandinavia and the Baltics. Metro International, the freebie Boston daily’s parent, is 28-percent owned by Stockholm-based Modern Times, according to its latest corporate filings. Modern Times is a large media outfit that includes TV1000, a controversial network that telecasts pornography as well as a broad range of entertainment and other programming. It formerly was majority owner of Metro International before the newspaper chain’s operations were spun off to shareholders in 2000. In the mid-1990s, TV1000 drew the wrath of Norway’s Ministry of Culture because the network was broadcasting porn films in violation of that country’s anti-smut laws. A New York Times Co. spokeswoman refused to say whether the Gray Lady is blushing as the company considers a corporate partnership with Modern Times. A Metro spokesman declined comment last night. But the dirty little detail suggests executives from the Times and Globe may have rushed through early due dilligence on the $16.5 million agreement. The Boston Herald has opposed the deal on anti-trust grounds. The Times, in an Oct. 25, 2000, report, said that “the financial rewards” of the porn business were so enticing “that some of the biggest distributors of explicit sex on film and online include the country’s most recognizable names.” One owner cited in the Times’ report was EchoStar, a satellite broadcaster “heavily backed” at the time – that is, 37-percent owned – by Times’ rival Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp. and owner of the New York Post. Globe publisher Richard Gilman, in a memo to staff members yesterday, said Metro’s corporate hierarchy “still must prove itself” before the Times and Globe go forward with the deal.