Jeff Trimble
If sex sells, the 1977 Lantern should have been rolling in cash.
Sample headlines, from just one month (March):
- “Topless titillation tabooed for Florida spring frolics”
- “Skin flick creator reveals naked truth”
- “Pornography stirs rallies” (Double entendre, anyone?)
- “Pimples and peeping Tom pose problems” (From a “Letter to Dr. Turner” column, in which a student asks for advice because she’s considering exposing herself to a peeping Tom in her campus neighborhood. Bad idea, opined the doctor.)
- “Bette Davis claims ‘daring’ nude scene” (a wire story)
And this, atop an arts column by yours truly: “Porn draws high praise.” The Page 1 teaser: “Arts Columnist Jeff Trimble thinks it’s about time someone said a few words about what’s good about Hustler magazine and similar publications. For his critique of the prince of porn, turn to Page 11.”
I opened with high-minded praise for First Amendment free speech protections, then dove in with this: “When did you last hear anyone in the media say, ‘Yeah, I think porn is a real turn-on, and we should keep it around?’ I feel it is up to me to defend the interest of those Hustler devotees and the millions of others who enjoy the endless stream of pornography in its many forms.”
I went on to do so, in a lurid review of that month’s Hustler issue that I confidently intended to be a humorous, over-the-top satirical take-down of the magazine’s unabashed, gross raunchiness, much of it involving perverted debasement of women.
It didn’t work. To more than a fair share of readers (including Lantern colleagues, many of whom were ardent feminists) the article came off as a misogynistic defense of male chauvinism in the extreme.
Lesson learned: humor is hard. Don’t try to write satire unless you know what you are doing.
Was sex top of mind in the Lantern newsroom on those chilly March afternoons? After all, the topic was (and remains, I assume) of more than passing interest to college undergrads.
But there’s more to this story. As aspiring journalists, we were exploring the hottest issues of the post-Vietnam era, a time of unprecedented frankness about the good, bad, and ugly of American society. Women were flexing their muscles — literally as well as figuratively — as never before, with Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, and Shirley Chisholm among leaders pushing for equal rights and challenging gender inequality. The Equal Rights Amendment was under fiercely contested consideration for ratification by state legislatures. (To remind: the amendment fell short of ratification by three states, and Ohio was among those that did not ratify it).
We waded right in. In that same month the inimitable Marilyn Geewax, perhaps our most ardent feminist, wrote a dead serious, poignant column about the scourge of child pornography. My cringe-inducing arts column was meant to explore the challenges of balancing free speech rights against legal and other determined attempts to stem the rank exploitation of women. Our efforts were sincere and well-intentioned. Sometimes we succeeded. Sometimes we came up short.
That’s my second Lantern lesson learned: don’t shy away from the big issues just because they are difficult. Jump in. Push the envelope. If you get it wrong, admit it and try again. That’s the brand of journalism we learned at The Lantern and that guided our careers in media through decades of our country’s history: the good, the bad, and the ugly. And yes, the sexy too.
Editor’s Note: Jeff Trimble (B.A. Journalism, 1978; M.A. Journalism, 1982) has been an international journalist, editor, and media manager for more than 40 years, including as Moscow Bureau Chief and Foreign Editor for U.S. News & World Report and as Director of Broadcasting and Acting President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He chairs the board of Eurasianet and is an affiliated lecturer in OSU’s School of Communication.
