LETTER: Porn story — just not enough info

Editor,

I was intrigued last week when you listed a talk that was to be given in the TSC about the dangers of Internet pornography. I was unable to attend, but now wish I would have. Over the weekend, some colleagues and I were discussing what little we knew about the talk by Mark Kastleman.

Some of my colleagues had heard about the author on local public radio. We all wondered about this “researcher and speaker” (quoted from The Statesman) and what his credentials are, which brings me to my response.

The front-page article on Sept. 30, titled, “The Drug of the New Millennium”, Kastleman is quoted as saying that Internet porn is “100 times” more destructive than alcoholism and drug addiction. This is an unbelievably general claim that is not supported by any research, at least none that he mentions.

I was also appalled to read Kastleman using Ted Bundy as an example to back up his argument about the dangers of Internet pornography, when Bundy was executed for his crimes years before Internet porn could have been considered a “problem.”

Not only is Kastleman at fault for his hasty generalizations about pornography use, but the article is also written in such a subjective and un-investigative manner as to suggest that every claim he is making is the absolute truth. The article does not make an attempt to justify his authority on the subject of pornography, nor does it give any background on the publication of his book (which is published by Granite Publishers in Orem, Utah).

The lengthy article actually has no critical view on the heated and controversial topic. I was infuriated by Kastleman’s deficient and non-academic claims and by the subjective manner in which it was presented to the students and faculty at Utah State University.

Matthew Stiffler