-By Warner Todd Huston
ABC News is excited about porn. At least excited by the “fact” that conservative and religious states have the highest levels of porn usage in the country. This, ABC says, is according to a study by Benjamin Edelman at Harvard Business School. Yes, it’s another one of those dime-a-dozen studies.
ABC trumpets the bare “facts” in its February 28 piece titled, “Porn in the USA: Conservatives Are Biggest Consumers.” In its first few paragraphs the report claims that, “Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious” than states in the more liberal areas of the country. But there is a problem with ABC’s heavy-handed claim. Even the Harvard researcher doesn’t put too much emphasis on the “conservative states” aspect because his data doesn’t show a very wide gulf between states, conservative or not.
In fact, professor Edelman takes pains to say, “When it comes to adult entertainment, it seems people are more the same than different.” This tends to relay that the rates from state to state really aren’t that notable. Edelman also says later in the piece that, “The differences here are not so stark,” where it concerns the data he compiled.
ABC News: Conservatives Are Biggest Porn Consumers?”
Looks like ABC News is starting out 2009 with a partisan bang. On its main page, ABC News is hosting a slide show featuring what it is calling the “