An editorial “Porn’s negative effects on society” begins “Americans instinctively know pornography is bad for them.” It goes on to quote studies which the New Era fails to identify as stating “Men who view pornography regularly have a higher tolerance for abnormal sexuality, including rape, sexual aggression and sexual promiscuity” and to make other unsubstantiated claims.

In answering its own question “What to do?” it relates “The Chinese government blocked 41 Web sites o Friday for containing pornography as part of a month-long campaign to purify the Internet.”

WATCHDOG: We are having trouble responding due to our laughter at the editors’ public display of such low journalistic standards by failure to cite government or peer reviewed studies for its highly questionable harrumphs, capped off by outlandishly implying that Chinese suppression of human rights should be a model for us Americans!

Furthermore, aren’t the editors aware that the the Chinese are suppressing pornography largely as a cover for closing down hundreds of established respectable news websites that have been informing the Chinese about national and world news and criticizing government activities?

The New Era prides itself on being the conservative newspaper, then goes about printing titillating reports about sexual offenses and presenting names and pictures of the accused. Below is some real research which perhaps sheds light on the editors’ mindset:

“Porn in the USA: Conservatives are biggest consumers” appearing in the New Scientist reports:

“Americans may paint themselves in increasingly bright shades of red and blue, but new research finds one thing that varies little across the nation: the liking for online pornography.

“A nationwide study (pdf) of anonymised credit-card receipts from a major online adult entertainment provider finds little variation in consumption between states.

“’When it comes to adult entertainment, it seems people are more the same than different,’ says Benjamin Edelman at Harvard Business School.

“However, there are some trends to be seen in the data. Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.

“‘Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by,’ Edelman says….”