Local Porn Exec Fills Mitt Romney's Coffers

By Stefan Kamph Mon., Feb. 6 2012 at 11:26 AM

bagnewsnotes.com

Porn corporations are people, my friend.

Most (male) Mitt Romney supporters have probably stumbled across an ad for AdultFriendFinder.com (NSFW) at one point or another, though they might not admit it. But now there's another connection, between Friend Finder Networks and the likely Republican contender.

Chairman of the Board Daniel Staton has reportedly donated $2,500 to Romney's campaign, and the news is inspiring sarcastic commentary across the blogosphere.

Calling the owners of Friend Finder Networks "pornographers" is a bit of a stretch, though -- as the Herald points out, they're venture capitalists. Staton previously ran Build-a-Bear Workshop.

In addition, AdultFriendFinder has a sister site, BigChurch.com, that features "a searchable Bible, daily Bible chapter emails, chat rooms, and much more."

The company's president and CEO, Marc Bell, is a chairman of the board of trustees at Pine Crest School, which we noted in a July feature story about the school's tumultuous administration.

Bell has previously donated to Charlie Crist and to Romney's 2008 campaign. It's logical for business execs to favor the Republican's laissez-faire attitudes toward business, but the party-line preaching about moral rectitude can backfire when sex-industry types support GOP candidates. Here's a Herald blog about Rick Scott taking flak for campaign-finance ties to Playboy Mexico.

Our opinion? No worries. Let he who has never profited from sex and pornography cast the first stone.

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Tags:

Daniel Staton, Election 2012, Friend Finder Networks, Marc Bell, Mitt Romney, Republican Presidential Primary

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OneWhoKnows

"Calling the owners of Friend Finder Networks "pornographers" is a bit of a stretch, though -- as the Herald points out, they're venture capitalists"

Oh there's no stretch at all needed when you call Daniel Staton and Marc Bell pornographers - they are very much pornographers. Beyond the Adult Friend Finder network which is a subscription dating site for swingers and people looking to hook up for sex - AFF is not E-Harmony, Marc Bell and Daniel Staton bought Penthouse magazine and its other assets out of bankruptcy from the lat Bob Guccione. They are not merely at arms length investors, they very much run a very hardcore Internet porn network including Penthouse.com which produces explict XXX hardcore videos, Danni.com another glamour porn website and others.

Yes, indirectly there are many Fortune 500 companies that benefit from pornography but none of those companies actually produce hardcore pornography. To most that is the definition of 'pornographer' - one who produce it. And make no mistake Daniel Staton and Marc Bell supervise and pay for a very large amount of hardcore pornography to be produced.

There is absolutely no difference between Daniel Staton and Marc Bell and Larry Flynt. No splitting hairs there.