By Dan Kennedy • The press, politics, technology, culture and other passions

“You seem to be in denial”

That’s what U.S. District Judge William Young told former sportscaster Bob Gamere yesterday after Gamere whined about the five-year prison sentence he’d just been handed for distributing child pornography.

No kidding. What Gamere seems to have lost sight of is that actual children were exploited, and that his actions helped spur demand for more such exploitation.

Or maybe he doesn’t care.

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7 Comments

  1. cavard

    Dan, is this the same guy who hosted “Candlepins for Cash” on the old WNAC, Channel 7?

  2. cavard

    Oh, just read the article now.

    I remember growing up watching Candlepins thinking, “this is a really, really weird game show.”

  3. Doug Shugarts

    The Herald should have used the headline, “Gutterball.”

  4. murf

    I worked with Gamere for a brief time at WITS in the early 80s (which is very rarely mentioned in any of his bios; the station that is, not his having worked with me). His attendance record for morning drive time was, shall we say, spotty at best. He was tragic character way back then – the fact that he is also a pedophile just makes the matter all that much worse. Among other things, his story is testimony to the tremendous damage alcohol can do to a person.

  5. Neil

    What Gamere seems to have lost sight of is that actual children were exploited, and that his actions helped spur demand for more such exploitation.

    The moral analysis is a reasonable angle but the issue of possessing and transmitting child pornography was already debated and codified as Federal Law.

    Typically law enforcement would attempt to protect the primary victim (child) and the primary perpetrator (the unconscionable, manipulative dishonorable, exploitative and criminal photographer) but law enforcement has an understandably difficult time accomplishing this. So instead we go after the men who own the pornography, transmit it, buy it or trade it whether or not they have ever been guilty of pedophilia. I’m not saying its right or wrong from a law enforcement angle. I’m saying it’s different and its secondary, not a primary crime where the suspect is the primary perpetrator.

    How does the US Attorney learn that Gamere transmitted this through the internet? Is Gamere a suspect for whom the US Attorney obtains a warrant to monitor his transmissions or is there a blanket warrant for all such material transmitted via the internet or is there no warrant at all?

    The court document also identifies subscriptions Gamere had. Perhaps a whistle blower reported those materials to law enforcement.

    People who abuse or sexually abuse children ought to lose their right to be free in our society, including priests and church leaders who enable it. But that is not the same crime as possessing child pornography, which is a despicable (becuase it creates a market for the material) but nonetheless, lesser crime.

  6. anatinc

    We’re talking about Bob Gamere – judgment has never been his strong suit.

    I’m thinking there’s a great article yet to be written about his career, and how he utterly destroyed it.

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