Most of us would agree that
Larry Flynt is a pretty sleazy guy.
In 1974, he published the
first issue of Hustler magazine, which quickly became the most sexually graphic
publication in America. At its peak, it had a monthly circulation of 3,000,000,
but its current circulation is around 500,000. In addition to the magazine, Larry
Flynt Publications also licenses the Hustler brand Hustler Casino in Gardena,
California, a chain of Hustler Club bars and clubs, and a Hustler store chain
that sells adult-oriented videos, clothing, magazines, and sex toys
Larry Flynt is now 74 years
old, and lives in Hollywood Hills, California. He has been married 5 times and
divorced three (his third wife, Althea Leasure, drowned in 1987). In case you
are wondering, his net worth is an estimated $500 million, which seems to
disprove the old adage that the wages of sin is death.
In spite of his checkered
background, though, all of us owe Larry Flynt a debt of gratitude. If you
review the Wikipedia article about him, it’s clear that he has generated
numerous lawsuits and controversies in his lifetime. None of those lawsuits,
though, was as important to the rest of us as the 1998 Supreme Court case known
as Falwell v. Flynt. A summary of that court case can be found below:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hustler_Magazine_v._Falwell(
One of the net effects of
the court case is that it essentially granted cartoonists and other satirists
immunity from lawsuits, which is critically important at a time when the
current occupant of the White House would like to jail journalists who publish
articles that are critical of him. He also happens to believe that the 1st
amendment of the United States Constitution is “outdated”.
Recently, a story was
in circulation that Donald Trump’s lawyer was threatening to sue Berkley
Breathed, who published Bloom County from December 8, 1980 until August 6,
1989. On July 13, 2015, the strip resumed, allegedly in response to the
Presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump. A little research on this story found
that it was actually “fake news”, a label that has attached frequently as of
late to some of the more august publications in America. To quote Kellyanne
Conway, it’s another example of “an alternative fact”.
Garry Trudeau has been
poking fun at Donald Trump for roughly 30 years, and many of his strips can be
viewed in the recently published “Yuge!, which will certainly bring a smile to
your face.
Donald Trump has been a
huge gift to late night comics, like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, and he
has also provided a TON of material for political cartoonists around the
country. Here’s one example from our local newspaper. Thanks to that old
scumbag Larry Flynt, all of them, and all of us, owe him our heartfelt
thanks.
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