Letters to the Editor

Letters posted here are associated with the following article:
Broadsheet responds to criticism about an earlier post about video king Joe Francis.
The letters thread is now closed.
  • If it makes you feel any better...

    I got the sarcasm!

  • Ditto!

    I got the sarcasm, too. And the irony.

  • What goes around, comes around...

    I, for one, don't think that Mr. Francis is getting anything that he doesn't deserve.

  • Turning a wry eye?

    Be honest. You were gloating.

    Sexist pigs come in many shapes, sizes and methods of attack.

  • Apology NOT accepted!

    Why on earth should you apologize for speaking the truth? My heart goes out to anybody victimized by an unscrupulous barbarian who presumes to profit off of another's momentary position of weakness -- whether the weakness is captivity (Francis) or of temporary lack of judgement brought on by alcohol (many of the girls whose inebriation he's profited from).

    Francis has every right and every reason to go to court and protest his treatment. But he'd best not doing hoping that no one will draw the parallel between what was done to him and what he himself has done.

    Hopefully, he will learn the kharmic lesson. But whether he does or not, there's no reason why you can't make a point of it to the rest of the world.

    ~AS~

  • re: the female readers who feel francis "deserves it"

    No Francis doesn't "deserve it". He was just minding his own business when somebody attacked him. You know who does deserve what they get?? Dumb women that go to "Girls-Gone-Wild" sponsered events on their own volition and then flash the camera on their own volition and then boo-hoo about being exploited. I have no sympathy for the vapid sluts who have the misfortune of being photographed acting like vapid sluts. So if anybody got what they deserved, it's your so-called victims: women who can't accept responsibility for their own adult decisions.

  • what a sincere apology - not

    i went back and read your original post.

    you weren't joking - your intentions were perfectly clear

    you called the story: "Broadsheet's vote for feel-good story of the holiday season!"

    ended with: "Isn't it nice to know that with or without a judge and jury, the universe takes care of karmic justice?"

    So why don't you just ... "own it" as they say, rather than throw up that lame-ass apology?

    I mean, I'm a man and I wish I had thought of making videos of drunk girls to show their tits. (for the record, i've never watched one of these videos) But I thought the story of his abduction was kind of funny, in a perverse way.

    I did not know he was charged with filming minors and possibly giving them drugs.

    His kidnapper did not pick him by accident. The asshole lives in that world. They are high-risk players and the stakes can be high. Both Francis and his kidnapper are the kinds of people who inhabit it. Sleaze indeed.

    It was karmic justice. Let it be.

    Don't apologize.

  • Blaming the victim?

    Hans: "You know who does deserve what they get?? Dumb women that go to "Girls-Gone-Wild" sponsered events on their own volition and then flash the camera on their own volition and then boo-hoo about being exploited. I have no sympathy for the vapid sluts who have the misfortune of being photographed acting like vapid sluts. So if anybody got what they deserved, it's your so-called victims: women who can't accept responsibility for their own adult decisions."

    For shame.

    Let me extend your argument: Women who get drunk at frat parties "deserve it". Women who wear tight dresses are "asking for it".

    The women in the GNG videos are invariably dangerously drunk. They show up to the bars and clubs where the events are filmed. The events (at least those in Oxford, OH) are staged like the "ladies' nights" of the usual local night-spots. After sufficient booze has been guzzled, the producers seperate the women from their groups, take them to the bus or a back room and pressure and/or bribe them to do much more than flash their tits.

    The videos feature scenes of under-age college girls making out, masturbating with Mardi Gras beads, and performing cunnilingus on each other. GNG goes far beyond just soft-core T&A. There's a reason they're only sold on cable at 3 a.m.

    The sexual culture of college campuses has a role to play in this exploitation of women. In the bleached, tucked and hungry system of constant competition and degradation that is the reality of college students, binge drinking and other acts of blatant irresponsibility define one's reputation on the after-classes campus. Of course we have the choice to drink six Jager-bombs in an hour. How many college students do you know who have the kind of foresight and security to walk away from the beer-pong table and take the loss?

    From birth, women are enculturated into particular sexual roles. GNG exploits this in the worst way by raising the bar on humiliation. Though I hardly advocate sexual assault in any from (even if it is poetic justice), I cannot feel sympathy for a man who has made untold millions on the video'd date rape of hundreds of insecure young women.

  • Joe Francis has a history of making extortion claims

    From the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-122005girls_lat,0,1560192.story?coll=la-home-headlines&track=morenews

    "Under questioning by Richards, Francis acknowledged in the past, he had accused four other people of extortion. But he said those cases, about which no details were available, were separate from today's charges." He alsp faces 47 charges in FLorida. They include

    "He also faces three counts of promoting the sexual performance of children; four counts of conspiracy to promote the sexual performance of children; two counts of using children in sexual performances; four counts of procuring persons younger than 18 for prostitution; two counts of conspiring to procure persons under 18 for prostitution; two counts of selling, distributing or offering to distribute or possessing with intent to distribute obscene material; two counts of prostitution; and one count of trafficking in hydrocodone.

    Many of the charges name Mantra Films Inc. and Aero Falcons LLC as co-defendants."

    St. Petersburg Times http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/26/State/Underage__Girls_Gone_.shtml

    How much you want to bet this was set up to get him sympathy, so people would ignore the child porn charges against him? He's also a drug dealer, it seems.

    I only wish this was karmic justice. The only justice this piece of trash will ever get will be someone shooting him after he goes too far. I doubt he was attacked.