After endless calls and letters from angry parents concerning the January “Kid’s Issue” of Big Brother Skateboarding magazine, an issue aimed at children which contained obscene and pornographic language, Managing Editor Dave Carnie has finally given answer to his detractors. To the question, “Do you think children should be looking at this filth?” Carnie responded, “Yes, and have you ever seen the inside of a goat’s a–? Oh my God, I got my head stuck in one the other day, and….”
Carnie wrote these words in an introductory column for the April issue of Big Brother as a sarcastic response to the large number of furious parents who have called him since the controversial “Kid’s Issue” in January. Carnie said he developed this strategy after attending one of Big Brother Publisher Larry Flynt’s press conferences. Instead of answering questions from the press, Carnie has resolved to become, in his words, a “mongoloid a–h—.”
Said Carnie, “I will tell them exactly what they want to hear: pure evil and pure chaos. If I must, I’ll be the sole reason why children have so much contempt for their parents. I’ll even go so far as to say I’m the source of the nations’ moral woes. F— it, who cares. I’ll even challenge them to a swimming race.”
This response comes after parents across America picked up the January “Kid’s Issue,” which contained an 8-year-old boy on the cover, yet contained lewd and often pornographic language inside. In a radio interview with Talk Radio Network talk-show host Guy Kemp, Carnie admitted that the cover of the “Kid’s Issue” was a deliberate attempt to disguise the obscene content of the magazine. Carnie said that he writes what he thinks is funny, and if people don’t like it, they don’t have to read it.
However, when Carnie recently spoke by phone with WorldNetDaily, he seemed much less the antagonist. Carnie admitted in the interview that he should have put a label on the cover of the January issue, or at least changed it in some way as to make it less geared towards children. He said the “Kid’s Issue” was not necessarily for kids, it was about kids. He also admitted the magazine was definitely not for 8- or 9-year-olds.
Concerning the interviews in the “Kid’s Issue,” which asked 14-year old kids such questions as “Would you ever f— your mother?” and “Do you think your wienie will ever grow to be as big as daddy’s?” Carnie (who did most of the interviews) said that a lot of the humor is sarcasm, and not an attempt to be “pornographic” towards children.
Carnie also mentioned that he was glad that parents are monitoring what their kids are reading, and that they have every right to forbid their son or daughter from reading the magazine.
For some parents, however, simply preventing their child from reading Big Brother is not good enough. Some have even gone so far as to try to get the magazine taken off the shelves of their local bookstore.
Hasting Book, Music and Video stores, which have stores across central and western America, have taken the magazine off their shelves after several parents complained about the January “Kid’s Issue” and subsequent editions. National bookstores chain Barnes and Noble has also come under fire for carrying the magazine. It has put the magazine under plastic wrap to discourage children from buying the magazine.
Yet the question still remains as to why Larry Flynt, a known pornographer, is publishing a children’s magazine. Though not popularly known, according to Larry Flynt Publications, Flynt’s empire contains seven non-adult publications, along with his 13 adult publications. And they are mainstream periodicals, including one called “Tips and Tricks” which contains information about kids’ video games.
Some may see this as an attempt by Flynt to get his pornography into the hands of children through the backdoor. Yet when asked how much editorial influence Flynt exercises in the production of Big Brother magazine, Carnie’s answered, “None. Flynt actually called it a snow-boarding magazine.” There have also been rumors swirling about claiming that, when sales increase, Flynt will do whatever he wants at Big Brother magazine. Not true, according to Carnie. Carnie said he prints what he thinks is funny, and that Flynt really has no say in what goes into Big Brother.
So has the magazine toned down its pornographic language since the parental uproar over the January “Kid’s Issue?” Yes and no. There are still remnants of Carnie’s lewd humor in the April Issue; for instance, Carnie writes about a “game” called a “Portland Frank,” in which the player is to stand in front of an open refrigerator with his penis in-hand, and squirt mustard on it. Then, writes Carnie, “just bask in the light of the refrigerator with your arms at your side until you get an erection.”
Obscene? Yes, but then, the cover of the April issue doesn’t have an 8-year-old with the words “Kid’s Issue” written on it. By comparison, the rest of the issue is rather tame after that, and there are numerous articles about skateboarding inside.
Parents, however, are not buying it. They still wonder what a “Portland Frank” has to do with skateboarding, or why such language is even in a magazine ostensibly aimed at teen-age readers — some even as young as 12, admitted Carnie.
It seems, though, that Larry Flynt and his people are not saying much on this issue, and repeated calls to Jim Coles, president of Larry Flynt Publications, by WorldNetDaily have gone unanswered.
