General Motors says 'Goodbye' to Porn

by Jim Brown and Pat Centner

(AgapePress) An anti-pornography group says General Motors' (GM) sale of Hughes Electronics to News Corp is a "significant" pro-family victory. The National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families is praising GM for selling Hughes, since that company is the parent of satellite-provider DirecTV, which provides hard-core pornography.

The coalition has been calling on GM and other Fortune 500 companies to get out of the porn business so they do not legitimize the industry by being a part of it. National Coalition CEO Rick Schatz says his group wants the public to know that pornography is still a dirty business.

"As General Motors sells Hughes Electronics and DirecTV to [News Corp CEO] Rupert Murdoch, that in and of itself will not reduce the amount of pornography that's available in the marketplace in total," Schatz says. "But at least we get a company like General Motors out of the business -- and that's very, very good."

In a recent news release, Jerry Kirk, founder and chairman of the National Coalition, expressed his thanks: "We are so grateful for the many concerned citizens who signed petitions and wrote letters to General Motors," he said. Kirk asked that people of faith no longer sign petitions or send letters of protest, but instead thank General Motors for getting out of the pornography business.

CEO Schatz says he realizes the pressure his group brought to bear on GM did not by itself induce the sale of Hughes. However, he said he is "convinced that the fact that [his group] saying to General Motors -- 'You can either have your good name or you can be in the pornography business, but you can't have both' -- had some influence in terms of either the decision they made or the speed with which they moved it forward."

Schatz says his group has not formally decided whether it will now target News Corp for its participation in the pornography business.

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