In a lengthy (read it over a long lunch, Europeans) commentary on Pro Porn Activism, Greene points out that the HIV testing protocols of the heterosexual porn industry have been sufficient to contain HIV exposure and notes that the two Patients Zero in the 2004 case (performer Darren James, who contracted the virus in Brazil) and the 42-year-old female performer diagnosed on June 4, likely didn't contract the virus within the Porn Valley testing radius.

Greene and several well-informed commenters then debate condom use (Greene's stance is that condoms can break and vaginas get especially raw when the sex lasts for three hours under hot lights, asserting that Porn Valley-level HIV testing does a job that condoms don't), state regulation (how will broke-ass California afford/enforce it? Like they enforce safe sex in bathhouses?), and the "agendas" of L.A. City and County officials as well as Porn Valley personnel with beefs against testing facility AIM, of which Greene is an emeritus board chairman.

Greene believes that testing could stand to be increased to bi-weekly rather than every 28 days, but he essentially says that the testing system ain't broke. Whether or not you agree, the conversation is an illuminating and refreshing look at the brainer side of porn blogging.

· Rumor Control Central Re-Opens for Business (bppa.blogspot.com)
· LFP on HIV (gramponante.com)

As opposed to the NY Times' reasonably sane and balanced coverage of the adult industry lately, the LA Daily News' new week-long "Valley Exposed" series reads more like a lurid tabloid exposé than Serious Journalism, what with all those words like "secret" and "hidden" and "underground" buzzing around the first couple of paragraphs. AVN takes the writers to task for the article's inaccurasies and barely restrained hysteria, and while we in turn take issue with some of AVN's assertions (we think "several years ago" is perfectly acceptable in describing the time frame of Jenna Jameson's stint on the best seller list), we too are getting a little tired of sloppily researched mainstream porn coverage designed more to titillate suburban readerships than shed any real light on the adult industry. Then again, the series also includes an interesting sidebar on TightFit Productions' Oren Cohen and a (similarly dire yet informative) report today on Sharon Mitchell's Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation and the porn business' HIV concerns. So maybe we'll keep tuning in for the rest of the week after all.

· "Exposed: Porn In The Valley": Part I: "The Valley's Dark Secret" and Part II: "Porn And Health" (dailynews.com)
· "News Analysis: Porn Valley's Newspaper Gets Some Porn Stuff Right ... And A Bunch Wrong" (avn.com)

Previously: NY Times: Porn Economy Just As Bad As The Regular One, Deep Inside Kink Dot Com: Smut With A Smile, BBC Goes To Porn Valley, Porn on Pause @ NYT, HIV, Porn and Privacy