The sub-headline of a recent article in the Washington Post asserts that “Everywhere you look, porn is suddenly inescapable.” The only problem with that assertion is… well, embodied in the rest of the article.
Having established a somewhat alarmist tone in its headline, the article itself proceeds to offer a few anecdotes about people using their iPhone or Palm Pre to watch mobile porn in planes, trains and automobiles, while conceding the fact that such exposure is actually still fairly rare.
“Naturally, flight attendants, the front line of defense for any in-flight high jinks, have experience with this issue,” the article states before quoting two flight attendants about the issue. Among their observations? Both said that “instances of public porn are rare.”
OK — so are instances of public mobile porn “unavoidable” or are they “rare?” My suspicion is that the latter is true… but the former sure does make for a far more salacious headline!
This article and its headline, sadly, represent modern American journalism in microcosm: first, you figure out how to sell your story to the readers, then you worry about reporting anything vaguely resembling a fact. (In televised journalism, other requirements include an eye-catching graphic and ominous music to accompany the sensationalist headline).
The problem with fluff pieces like this laugher from the Washington Post is that the headline and its breathless claim of porn’s sudden public ubiquity are what people will remember. If repeated frequently enough, assertions that mobile porn is everywhere, however flawed, will take on the appearance of fact in the minds of many news consumers — and from there you can count on some mentally challenged ninny in Congress deciding that “something must be done!” And since Congressional ninnies have nothing else to reach for, the lamebrain legislator in question will end up proposing some entirely unnecessary new law regulating mobile viewing habits.
Never you mind that we already have laws against the public display of “indecent” or “obscene” images, the Congressional Crusader who proposes it will energetically argue that without their new bill — which will, naturally, come in the form of some painfully stupid acronym (like the Securing Americans from Forced Eroticism or “SAFE” Act) — America will be DOOMED.
You laugh now, but mark my words, this superfluous proposal for proscribed propriety will come. When it does, remember… you heard it here first. 
