Commentary: How Much Does LA Weekly Love AIDS Healthcare Foundation?

LOS ANGELES—As surely as night follows day, if some government agency decides that someone in the adult industry has done something wrong, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will put out a press release about it... and as surely as day follows night, LA Weekly's Dennis Romero will post an article lauding reporting on AHF's position and often embellishing it. The recent announcement by Cal/OSHA that it had cited James Deen Productions for nine "workplace violations"—including five "non-serious" or "regulatory" violations, such as lack of wastebaskets, tangled electrical cords and the like—was all the fodder AHF needed to bash owner James Deen for not only his failure to use dental dams during pussy-licking scenes, but also because "several" alleged "rape accusations were lodged against the performer," which AHF is claiming resulted in Cal/OSHA "open[ing] an investigation of Deen and his production company" last December. Of course, since none of the alleged rape victims has even filed a police report to that effect, much less taken such accusations to Cal/OSHA, the tidbit that AHF left out of its PR was that it was AHF itself that filed the complaint—and according to Romero's account of the incident on December 8, "Cal/OSHA officials said they were trying to determine if they've opened an investigation," though AHF's Adam Cohen assured Romero that they had. And apparently Cal/OSHA officials work pretty late, because according to that same story, "A Cal/OSHA spokeswoman confirmed the investigation"—by email at roughly 11 o'clock that night! Moreover, there seems to be some confusion about whether Cal/OSHA opened the investigation that day, or whether AHF had simply added allegations to a complaint it had already filed against Deen. Indeed, Dennis Romero is what we in the adult industry call "a trip." For one thing, Romero has no compunction against using adult performers' real names, as he does with James Deen in his most recent article, though he must be aware that adult performers, even more than Hollywood stars, are subject to harassment and stalking by their fans and others, who use real names to hunt down the performers' home addresses, email addresses, family members and the like. But the main problem is Romero's acceptance of statements from AHF and its president, Michael Weinstein, at face value. For instance, when Weinstein said in AHF's press release that Deen is "the most vocal critic and prominent public face of the industry in its opposition to condom use," that's a description Weinstein pulled out of his ass. Deen has in fact played only a minor role in the industry's fight against the oppressive CalOSHA regulations, and wasn't even present at the Standards Board meeting in Oakland last month when the latest industry-targeted amendment to the Health Code was voted down—nor did he take part in the discussions of the subject at either the AVN or XBIZ adult expos in January. The best Romero could find was a short video created by Free Speech Coalition last year which depicted what porn would look like if all the "barrier protections" Cal/OSHA wants were used in a scene. If Romero had actually been paying attention to the ongoing discussion about Cal/OSHA and its war on the industry, he would have known that. Romero is also apparently the master of understatement when he writes, "AHF President Michael Weinstein this week seemed to relish the state's decision." When has Weinstein ever not "relished" a state decision that bashed the adult industry? Moreover, when Romero reports that Cal/OSHA Chief Juliann Sum stated, "Third Rock Enterprises [Deen's company] failed to protect employees from illness and injury while on set," he might have at least mentioned that in fact, no injuries or illnesses resulted from anything that occurred on Deen's sets, thanks in large part to the adult industry's comprehensive testing program and performer health database PASS. But such a caveat might have raised Weinstein's ire, and LA Weekly apparently can't have that. But why should LA Weekly care about Weinstein's ire and the potential consequences of raising it? Perhaps it's that the AHF honcho already has provided exit strategies to two erstwhile employees of the alternative newspaper—and who knows how many more will find homes at the well-endowed healthcare provider? Former LA Weekly managing editor Jill Stewart is now the head of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation-created and -funded "Coalition to Preserve L.A.," which has collected signatures to put a "Neighborhood Integrity Initiative" on the November 2016 ballot, in large part, we surmise, because the proposed high-rise Hollywood Palladium Towers would block the view from AHF president Michael Weinstein's office window. Also, former LA Weekly staffer Patrick Range McDonald currently works for AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Given how tough it is to find jobs in the media these days, why would reporters at the Weekly want to mess with such a successful outplacement service?