Lindos wrote:

"Someone in the public limelight can publish whatever they want on their own website - leaving out what they want to leave out and not having their words edited for gross misinterpretation (and therefore greater entertainment value). But as soon as they give an interview to "traditional media" they get no control whatsoever over how their words or edited or the context in which they are placed - or even whether or not the dirt wad reported decides to publish their real name."

- What, you're alternative is the independent blogosphere? If an indy gets caught with an outright lie or gross unprofessional ethics like this, there's little consequence. A blogger would be too broke to be worth suing.

But a newspaper or a TV Network, you could sue them until they fire the reporter as well as the editor who approved the story. That is the case here. Both should also be professionally ruined so they can never be journalists again.

Lindos wrote:

"Really, if you were a public star, which route would you take if you were trying to get publicity. Personally, I would tell any reported who isn't going to give me final edit to go take a hike."

- trend2121's response is worth repeating

"Anyone who gives the subject of a piece any edit, never mind final edit, isn't a reporter. Any publication that would give the subject of a piece an edit is a PR vehicle, not a news source.

Abuse in a system doesn't mean the system must be corrupt and should be eliminated. All systems have corruption. We still need home mortgages despite abuses of that system. Incompetent doctors don't mean we close down healthcare."

- But I disagree with trend2121 about how much corruption in the media we should be prepared to accept. Incompetent doctors should not be doctors. The same with reporters.

A guy who writes for the SF Weekly is shocked about bondage, confuses it with torture, and outs a pro domme? Has he ever actually looked around San Francisco?!

But I disagree with trend2121 about how much corruption in the media we should be prepared to accept. Incompetent doctors should not be doctors. The same with reporters.

You don't disagree with me. I said "Abuse in a system doesn't mean the system must be corrupt and should be eliminated." Of course abuse in a system must be punished or otherwise dealt with. I was disagreeing with Lindos' assertion that this was "One More Reason for the Death of Traditional Media".

Abuse doesn't mean there is no value in the system and must result in its elimination. If you did that, you'd have nothing.

If I were in the father's position, I would probably do the same.

There is the safety issue. This isn't just pornography, its pornography mixed with liberal doses of violence and sadism. Secondly, anyone with any first-hand experience of the pornography industry will tell you that drugs are a pretty big part of the industry "culture." A lot of the performers have issues with abuse in their own lives and it tends to create a great deal of instability in the personal lives of some performers. I'm not saying that these points apply to Mz Berlin, not at all. However, the judge definitely does have reason to be concerned about what kind of situation the child is being raised in, at the very least. Its possible that Mz Berlin has done a stellar job of keeping her private and public lives completely separate, but it would criminally negligent of the judge to not at least investigate the situation.

Even bigger in my mind, is the psychological well-being of the child. The boy is 8-years old, right? So hes in a really crucial stage of his personal development. Does he know *anything* about his mother's work? I would imagine that finding out that his mother works in pornography would, at the very least, raise a lot of difficult questions and would definitely have the potential, at least, to negatively influence his personal development. In particular, the fact that his mother's work also involves abuse and sadism could be pretty dangerous. Remember, at 8 years old its pretty hard to tell whats real and not real in movies and such, let alone being able to navigate the fine-line between consensual abuse and non-consensual abuse or between real sadistic violence and play. Who knows though, like I said, maybe her private and public lives are completely seperate. But it doesn't seem to be like this is an open-and-shut case.

I guess that makes me a "biblical moralist" but ... whatever. I don't really think this has to do with American puritanism. In what society on earth would this be a non-issue? Maybe some parts of Europe? Even then I'd imagine its somewhat contentious. America is actually very, very liberal on this issue. In much (most?) of the world, someone like Mz Berlin would be much, much more socially ostracized and not have any chance at all of winning a legal battle like this. I'm just glad I didn't have to deal with something like this when I was 8. I know it definitely would have messed me up.

Given how badly men are regularly screwed in family court, i find it amusing at all the outrage that this women has lost custody. Feminist organizations like NOW have continued to fight joint custody legislation and support the notion that any accusation by a women should be taken at face value in the family courts. The bigger question should be, should father's lose custody just because the mother decides it....or better yet, should children lose their right to a father, because the mother finds it convenient ? Keep your eye on the ball girls.

I suspect that Ms. Berlin's identify may not have been determined through her films because she probably looks different on-screen than she does in mommy-mode. She should definately not loose her parental visitation rights. Her husband is clearly using the issue to his benefit...as most ex-husbands will.

Years ago I worked with Debbie of Debbie Does Dallas fame and was going to write about it. I knew her real name and nearly used it. Fortunately I did some research to refresh my memory of those days in the early '80's and discovered that she is now a mother and has protected her identify quite well. I remembered her as a confused kid who craved attention. Now that she is grown, I would never want to have exposed her true name. Shame on any journalist who would.