SF Chronicle Writer Doesn't Know Dick About Porn

Jim Mitchell died of apparent heart failure last Thursday. He and his brother Artie comprised the Mitchell Brothers, San Francisco's reigning sex impresarios and pornographers. As such they were key figures in the city's history, from the late 1960s through the '90s, when Jim Mitchell shot his brother to death in 1991, and served a three-year sentence on a manslaughter charge. The murder and subsequent sensational trial was the climax of a rich and colorful history at the intersection of sex, commerce, law enforcement, the counterculture, and local politics.

Steven Winn of the San Francisco Chronicle looks back today at the Mitchell Brothers' history and legacy. He doesn't seem to like that history and legacy, and peppers his brief history with wags of his finger about the alleged social harm caused by pornography, both in the Mitchells' heyday and as available now over the Internet. But he gets his facts wrong:

Now, in a digital age where Eros has become irreversibly virtual on the Internet, Mitchell's death punctuates the end of an era that he long outlived. Today's aspiring versions of the Mitchell Brothers wouldn't dream of investing in urban real estate or relishing public dustups with local politicians. They'd be operating under the radar, selling their Web wares from some garage in Bakersfield or a back bedroom in Fresno.

Aspiring sex impresarios don't invest in urban real estate? Someone should tell Kink.com's Peter Acworth about it. Far from flying under the radar, Acworth purchased the San Francisco Armory, on Mission Street, last January and is using the space for video production for his erotic Internet empire. The purchase even included . Come on, reporters are supposed to have a clue about what happens in their town, aren't they?