79)," no doubt representing for Falwell abuses of our Constitutional freedoms.
"In 1983, Hustler Magazine decided to parody Falwell using a Campari Liqueur advertisement. The actual Campari ads portrayed interviews with various celebrities about their 'first times.' Although the advertisement actually focused on the first time that the celebrities had sampled Campari, the ads portrayed the double entendre of the first time that the interviewees had engaged in sex. Hustler mimicked the Campari format and created a fictional interview with Falwell in which he stated that his 'first time' was during a drunken incestuous rendezvous with his mother in an outhouse (p. 79)."
The Oregon Commentator, May, 2007
There is probably no limit to the outrage that was felt by Falwell, and by his support base, both of which would have been offended, first, by using Falwell in any way to entertain the subscribers to Hustler Magazine. The image, however, depicts a relaxed, even family-like, photo of Falwell resting his chin on his hand. In the right-hand section of the ad, is the Campari Liqueur with glasses of presumably the alcohol in two of the ways it might be served, and then, at the left margin, the name "Campari," with the words, "You'll never forget your first time (the Oregon Commentator, 2007)." The page also contains a mock and fictitious interview with Falwell in which it is suggested that Falwell's "first time" was with his mother in an outhouse. The ad, taken as a whole, suggests that not only did Falwell have an incestuous encounter with his mother, but that he was "a hypocrite who preaches only when he is drunk (Lively and Weaver, p. 79)."
Our legal system sometimes eludes our own personal sense of dignity and moral values; and in this case Falwell could not sue Hustler for defamation, because that legal cause requires "a false assertion (p. 79)." At the bottom of the, Hustler covered itself using a disclaimer that read, "ad parody -- not to be taken seriously." Hustler, thereby, established its use of the inflammatory material as a parody, an abstract expression of its reaction to Jerry Falwell in his role as a champion of American faith, family, and tradition. It conveyed Hustler's idea that Falwell was flawed, human, and, horrifying as it might be to his support base, had originated from a sexual act, and ostensibly an act that required some sexual imagination and fantasy as might be depicted in the magazine. Also, that Falwell his self probably had sex, and perhaps even suggesting that Falwell could not attract the sensual, sexy women depicted in the magazine, and, therefore, would have sex with the one woman who truly loved him, despite his narrow-mindedness -- his mother.
Our legal system does, however, if one looks hard enough, offer a number of other ways to deal with this kind of inflammatory depiction. Falwell brought suit against Hustler Magazine and its owner/publisher, Larry Flynt, on grounds that the magazine had intentionally harmed him by inflicting upon him mental distress (p. 79). Indeed, one can easily concede that Falwell's distress was great given that his constituency was a post World War II public morality whose sensitivities were protected even by the television industry, which required its public television dramatizations of people in bedrooms, on beds, to have one foot out of the bed and on the floor (Chunovic, 2000, p. 17).
Falwell was successful in his suit, and a jury awarded him compensatory damages in the amount of $100,000, and punitive damages in the amount of $50,000 (Lively and Weaver, p. 79). It was not, of course, the financial win that Falwell was most interested in, but the win involving the control the decision exercised over freedom of the press and free speech when it came in conflict with the values and traditions of his constituency. The challenge was one that Flynt was not prepared to accept, and Hustler appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which delivered a blow to Falwell when it reversed the lower court, and issued the following opinion:
"In answering the question in the negative, the Court emphasized that the First Amendment emphasizes the 'fundamental importance' of allowing people to express themselves 'on matters of public interest and concern.' The Court also recognized that 'robust political debate' is likely to result in speech that is critical of public officials and public figures 'who are intimately involved in the resolution of important public...
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