Do you believe in coincidence?

Just one day after Morality in Media released the DoD’s letter saying pornographic magazines were “not sexually explicit” — and were therefore permissible for sale in military stores — the DoD has decided to pull the magazines from Army and Air Force shelves:

AAFES officials said they want to reduce space for the magazine product category in exchange stores by 33 percent beginning tomorrow…

Among the 891 magazines that AAFES exchanges no longer will sell are some adult titles, including Playboy, Penthouse, American Curves, and Tattoo. Along with other magazine sales, sales of adult sophisticate titles at AAFES stores have declined 86 percent since 1998.

(Importantly, this is an AAFES decision, and AAFES only runs Army and Air Force exchanges.  The Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard have a separate entity.)  As if to emphasize the decision wasn’t an attempt to be the morality police, the article sternly makes the point it was a “business decision:”

“The decision to no longer stock the material is a business decision driven by the time, money and energy required to facilitate buying habits, combined with decreasing demand,” [Army Lt. Col. Antwan] Williams said.

The announcement does not say whether all of the awkwardly monikered “adult sophisticate” magazines will be pulled, though presumably any that remained would be best sellers.

Morality in Media will almost certainly be pleased, believing it was a decision that should have been made to comply with the law, rather than support a profit margin.

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