MCI SUPPORTS HARD-CORE CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

BY JOHN P. AVLON
May 10, 2005

"Faith, Family and Freedom" - I'm in favor of them. And I'd sure be steamed if these American values were hijacked by some special interest in a crass attempt to profit from politics and people's fears. But, lo and behold, little is sacred in an era where the culture wars have graduated from grassroots skirmishes to organized armies. Not even your long-distance calling plan is safe in the ideological crossfire.

For example, a San Francisco-based company called "Working Assets" offers long-distance carrier service that donates a percentage of each customer's bill to groups such as Human Rights Watch, Planned Parenthood, and the ACLU. The company claims to have raised $47 million for these organizations over the past two decades. With so much activist cash available via unorthodox political outreach, it was only a matter of time until conservative organizations used the same strategy. That time has apparently arrived.

It was in late December 2004 when New York-based comedian Eugene Mirman first received a phone-call from a nonprofit organization called "Faith, Family and Freedom," asking if he opposed gay marriage and then offering to switch his long-distance service to a "Christian-based telephone carrier" identified as United American Technologies out of Oklahoma.

It turns out that Mr. Mirman had donated $50 to the presidential campaign of Alan Keyes in 2000. His name was consequently added to a conservative database. Amused and a bit disturbed, he recorded the subsequent solicitations, and added the tapes to his stand-up act. Excerpts of the transcripts speak for themselves.

After the call reaches a person they are prompted to press "1" if they oppose gay marriage. A holding message says "Please do not hang up ... This information will describe how the ACLU and gays are getting gay marriage in every state." The operator then enters the conversation:

Operator: Did you press 1 to oppose same sex marriages?

Mr. Mirman: Oh, I pressed it, yes.

Operator: Okay, that's great to hear. And are you against same sex marriages?

Mr. Mirman: Well, I want to destroy it, yes.

Operator: Okay. That's great to hear... -

Mr. Mirman: Like the fist of God we will smash them!

Operator: Exactly.

In another recorded conversation, the operator describes United American Technologies as "the only carrier that is taking an active stand against same sex marriages and hardcore child pornography."

Mr. Mirman sensibly interjects, "I think all child pornography is hardcore. I don't think there's non-hardcore child pornography." He then asks "AT&T sponsors child pornography?" The operator clarifies by saying "No. No, that's MCI."

Mr. Mirman: MCI has hardcore child pornography?

Operator: Yes, they are. They have a pedophile Web site for men who love boys. It's a Montréal based Web site....

Mr. Mirman: And so MCI basically has a child pornography ring?

Operator: That's correct.

Mr.Mirman: What about the others? What does Verizon do?

Operator: Okay. Verizon, what they do is they train their employees to accept the gay and lesbian lifestyle.

Mr. Mirman: They try to turn their employees gay?

Operator: No, no. They train their employees to accept it.

Mr. Mirman coaxes out the absurdity of the script, but he's no left-wing activist with an axe to grind. Born in Russia, he explains, "My problem isn't with people of faith having certain convictions and wanting their money to support those convictions; it's with a phone company surreptitiously exploiting people's beliefs and fears for revenue. To have a nonprofit call people on your behalf and imply that MCI makes money from the rape of children and that God hates your competitors, I think, is inappropriate."

That's certainly one word for it. A call to United American Technologies shed further light on the fund-raising scheme. I spoke to Carl Thomspon, a senior consultant whose son-in-law Tom Anderson is CEO of the year-old company. He told me that 2,000 people a month were switching as a result of the calls and was forthright in admitting that "our main thing is calling against the gay and lesbian lifestyle." "We're not concerned about offending people who don't agree with us on these issues," he said.

More complicated was the arrangement he described with the "Faith Family and Freedom" 527 organization that had been placing the calls. The fund was created and maintained by the 33-year-old Republican floor leader of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, Lance Cargill. The funding arrangement, as both men described it, was that a percentage of the profits from each caller who switched would be directed back into the 527's coffers to pay for conservative political campaigns. This is a hate-speech-fueled food chain between a company professing faith and a political action fund.

Mr. Thompson said that both parties agreed to the script, a charge that Mr. Cargill denies. Mr. Cargill stated that the calls had been recently stopped because of complaints from folks who "didn't appreciate the phone calls," but other organizations continue to place calls on United American Technologies' behalf. This is a rare glimpse into the divide-to-conquer world of grassroots political activists in an age of poisonous partisanship. Some argue that left-wing groups like Working Assets created the environment that right-wing groups are now exploiting. But whatever the genesis, the result is the absurd and ugly state of our domestic politics, where an eye-for-an-eye threatens to leave everyone blind.

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Hear the tapes here.