Larry Flynt waged many First Amendment wars and not just in defense of porn
It was October 2001, not exactly the heyday of publisher Larry Flynt‘s many controversies, and professor Robert Richards couldn’t understand what the fuss was about.
Through the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment at Penn State, which Richards founded, the professor wanted to bring Flynt to speak to students and faculty. He found the backlash jarring.
A conservative radio host in Philadelphia had shared the university president’s contacts, encouraging listeners to bombard Penn State’s leadership. A religious group had sent its flock the email address for the college of communication’s dean. A state legislator had joined in stoking the outrage, even threatening the university’s funding over the Flynt visit and other campus events he found unseemly.
Cincinnati Enquirer
Larry Flynt, the poor Kentucky boy who got rich and famous selling pornography, died Wednesday of heart failure at his home in Los Angeles. He was 78.
Flynt s brother Jimmy Flynt confirmed the death to The Cincinnati Enquirer, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Crude, rude and outspoken, Flynt made his fortune in the early 1970s after he turned a racy newsletter for his Ohio strip clubs into Hustler magazine.
His sexually explicit magazine trampled over boundaries set by competitors, such as Playboy, and set the stage for court battles over obscenity that redefined the meaning of community standards and made Flynt an unlikely champion of free speech.