WWW- Concerned Women for America (CWA) hailed Adelphia Communications’ reversal of its decision to market hard-core pornography to its cable customers as evidence that public outcry and the threat of federal prosecution works.

“It took a lot of public outrage, but Adelphia has backed off its plan to sell hard-core pornography to cable subscribers,” said Robert Knight, director of CWA’s Culture & Family Institute. “It’s a good start, and a reaction to public outcry. Now, they should get rid of the other pornography on their system as well.”

The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that the troubled Adelphia Communications Corporation, one of the largest cable television providers, had announced plans to introduce XXX material, the most explicit pornography, to its pay-per-view lineup in the Southern California market. Public reaction was swift and negative.

In an interview with Pat Buchanan on MSNBC’s Scarborough Country on February 9, CWA’s chief counsel Jan LaRue said, “The lawyers at Adelphia ought to be advising the corporate heads that when you distribute triple-X hard-core pornography, it’s the kind of porn that’s prosecutable under the federal obscenity laws.” It is likely that Adelphia’s corporate heads took this into account in making their decision.

“This stuff is illegal. Obscenity is not protected under the First Amendment,” Knight said. “We’d give Adelphia a pat on the back, except that they should not have planned to break the law in the first place. Nobody who peddles porn cares a whit about women and children, or the men who get addicted and destroy their marriages and families.

“All those people who wrote, e-mailed and faxed Adelphia deserve credit for this victory for decency,” Knight said. “Adelphia should go further and dump the other porn they still peddle. And other major corporations that sell porn, such as Marriott Hotels, also need to clean up their acts. Pornography is a destroyer. Those who profit from it are profiting from others’ misery, disguised as ‘entertainment.'”