CHAPTER 3 Connecting Story and Values Is Essential to Persuasion

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Publication year: 2021

Chapter 3 Connecting Story and Values Is Essential to Persuasion

Context: Keith Jacobson has been convicted of receiving child pornography in violation of the federal Child Protection Act. He has appealed.

Story One:

When police searched a California pornography bookstore, they discovered Jacobson's name on the bookstore's mailing list. Jacobson had ordered three items from the bookstore, two magazines featuring photos of nude adolescent boys and a brochure listing stores in the United States and Europe selling sexually explicit materials. Posing as a member of a hedonist organization, a postal inspector mailed Jacobson a sexual attitude survey and a membership application. Jacobson paid the membership fee to receive a quarterly newsletter from the organization and returned the survey expressing his preference for preteen sex. Later, a postal inspector mailed Jacobson another survey. Jacobson responded positively, "Please feel free to send me more information. I am interested in teenage sexuality."
[¶]
Another postal inspector sent Jacobson a letter inviting him to order a child pornography catalogue. Jacobson requested the catalogue and then ordered Boys Who Love Boys, a magazine advertised in the catalogue. The catalogue described Boys Who Love Boys as "eleven year old and fourteen year old boys get it on in every way possible. Oral, anal sex and heavy masturbation. If you love boys, you will be delighted with this" Following a controlled delivery of the magazine, postal inspectors arrested Jacobson when they searched his home and found Boys Who Love Boys.

Story Two:

In February 1984, petitioner, a 56-year-old veteran-turned-farmer who supported his elderly father in Nebraska, ordered two magazines and a brochure from a California adult bookstore. The magazines, entitled Bare Boys I and Bare Boys II, contained photographs of nude preteen and teenage boys. The contents of the magazines startled petitioner, who testified that he had expected to receive photographs of "young men 18 years or older." Tr. 425. On cross-examination, he explained his response to the magazines:

"[PROSECUTOR]: [Y]ou were shocked and surprised that there were pictures of very young boys without clothes on, is that correct?
"[JACOBSON]: Yes, I was.
"[PROSECUTOR]: Were you offended?
"[JACOBSON]: I was not offended because I thought these were a nudist type publication. Many of the pictures were out in a rural or outdoor setting. There was—I didn't draw any sexual connotation or

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