Nixon's Rejection Of Porno Report Draws Criticism

The chairman and the director of research of the National Commission on Obscenity and Pornography strongly criticized President Nixon yesterday for his rejection of the Commission's findings.

"It is unfortunate that his advisors have led him to repeat the tired arguments of the past, based on assumptions, guesses, and fears without scientific backing," William B. Lockhart, a graduate of the Law School and chairman of the Commission, told the CRIMSON yesterday. "Our task was not to arrive at the conclusions the administration holds, but to make scientific studies of pornography."

Nixon's statement that "those who attempt to break down the barriers against obscenity and pornography deal a severe blow to the very freedom of expression they profess to espouse" made "no sense at all" to W. Cody Wilson, director of research for the Commission. Wilson, a former teaching fellow in Social Relations here, added, "I hope and trust Mr. Nixon issued a hastily prepared statement that did not truly reflect his views."

Nixon, speaking Saturday in Baltimore, "categorically" rejected the Commission's findings as being "morally bankrupt." He said that the "warped brutal portrayal of sex in books, plays, magazines, and movies, if not halted and reversed, could poison the well-springs of American and Western culture and civilization."

The Commission, consisting almost entirely of Johnson appointees, three weeks ago recommended an end to laws restricting the availability of 'obscene'materials to adults. It based its recommendation on an "extensive investigation" which had provided no evidence that the presence or use of explicitly sexual materials played "a significant role in the causation of social or individual harms. "

The Commission conceded, however, that the effect of pornography on children could be damaging. It urged legislative regulations on "the sale of sexual materials to young persons who do not have the consent of their parents" to prevent the problem.

Three commission members, aligned themselves with Nixon's position. In a minority report, they called the findings of the Commission a "Magna Carta for the pornographer," and said, "the commission is presumptuously recommending that the United States follow Denmark's lead in giving pornography free rein."

Lockhart was undisturbed by the parallel. "The number of sex crimes in Denmark has decreased since the pornography laws were removed," he said, "and the volume of sales of pornography within Denmark has gone down."