More Media Whores Claiming Gov’t Persecution (Girls Gone Wild Edition)

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Today is quite a day for scummy self promoters claiming they’ve be wronged by government prosecutors, the media, etc.

First there was Richard Hatch. (No, not this one — aka Apollo. This one.) And now, that purveyor of good taste, “Girls Gone Wild” mogul Joe Francis, is bitching because he got slapped with heavier than expected fines and penalties for making obscene profits by getting drunk underage girls to take their shirts off for a bunch of late-night dorks too cheap to spring for real porn.

His fine is 200 hours of community service, two years probation, and $500,000. That’s on top of 32 hours of CS per month for 30 months and $1.6 million in penalties he got in a related Florida case. That’s 1,160 hours of community service in all.

Outside the courthouse, Francis said he was relieved the process was over and that he now felt free to say that he had been unfairly persecuted by the Justice Department. “Of course I’ve been unfairly targeted by the government,” Francis said. “What better target than Joe Francis?”

What better indeed. Let’s hope they make him clean stadium urinals or something else suitably nasty.

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PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

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