LYNCHBURG, Virginia — The Lynchburg, Virginia local ABC affiliate, WSET, owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, published last week a "Porn Addiction" report riddled with War On Porn propaganda, an endorsement of the discredited theories of pseudoscientific website Fight the New Drug and a promotional plug for a local policeman, Sgt. Anders, and his self-designed "workshops on the dangers of pornography."
The report, called "Pornography: The New Gateway Drug," was written by a WSET staffer named Melissa Schroeder, and it focuses on the work of a policeman named Sgt. Steve Anders, a member of the Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children unit in Bedford County.
This is Sgt. Anders' alarming, feverish description of online pornography: "It's hardcore sex acts, it's torture, it's bondage, it's bestiality involving [minors]. Some of the youngest we've seen... still had the umbilical cord attached."
Sgt. Anders quotes as his sources a Huffington Post advice column on "keeping your kids away from porn" and statistics from a company called Family Safe Media, a religiously inspired, for-profit service that claims to "help parents control the media in their homes."
The article includes a plug for another religiously inspired, for-profit service, a quoted tweet, which is embedded in the WSET page and may or may not be targeted advertising served by Sinclair and not part of the article itself.
The 'Con' in Sponcon
The quoted tweet is by Protect Young Minds, a company that charges parents for advice on how to "'porn-proof' their kids before they come across highly addictive and easily accessible internet pornography."
An Instagrammed quote from George Washington — "Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession" — is removed from any War of Independence tactical context by Protect Young Minds, and redeployed in their War On Porn.
"Wise words from our first President!" Protect Young Minds endorses. "The same applies to the enemy of pornography addiction — it's easier to prevent than to overcome. We must equip the next generation with tools to combat pornography."
The article returns to Sgt. Anders who claims that early access to porn is leading to something he calls "improper arousal patterns."
"And like a drug, your brain can build up a tolerance to the material you're seeing so you seek out more extreme types of pornography to get the same sense of satisfaction and arousal," Sgt. Anders theorizes.
"Research shows pornography can be a 'gateway' to something much more serious like child pornography, even sexual assault," notes Sanders, adding that "almost 100 percent of sex offenders they interview have dealt with porn addictions."
Additional testimony is provided by Aaron Gaston, a Next Generation Pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg.
"The Bible teaches us we are to guard our hearts and guard our eyes," Pastor Gaston said.
Sgt. Sanders Teaches Workshops
A second link in the report reads as follows: "Teens’ porn viewing habits report demands strategic response — Christian Concern." Christian Concern describes itself as "the trading name of CCFON Ltd, a British evangelical organization in the United Kingdom which seeks to introduce a more conservative Christian voice into law, the media and government."
The article then leads to readers to Amaze.org, which WSET claims is dedicated to "providing adolescents with medically accurate, age-appropriate, affirming and honest sex education" with YouTube tutorials to "help guide the discussion about pornography, including a video called 'Porn: Fact or Fiction.'"
Finally, the article promotes the policeman's own "porn education" seminar.
"Sgt. Sanders teaches workshops on the dangers of pornography. To set up a class, you can call the Bedford County Sheriff's Office," the report reads. "Sgt. Sanders also suggests the website Fight The New Drug as a valuable source of information on this topic. Thomas Road Baptist Church also has resources for those who are suffering from pornography addiction."
Lynchburg, Virginia is home to Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, a main recruitment ground for War On Porn militants, including Ohio state legislator Jena Powell, author of her state's proclamation of porn as "a public health crisis," currently being debated.
WSET-TV, is the ABC affiliate serving Roanoke. The station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which became notorious during the 2018 midterms campaign for compelling all of its new shows to run verbatim Trump-leaning denunciations of "fake news."
According to a Vox.com report, "the segments, which echo the Trump administration’s anti-media rhetoric, are eerily uniform across all Sinclair affiliates, so much so that Deadspin’s Timothy Burke was able to edit them together into a supercut showing dozens of Sinclair anchors saying the exact same words."
