In the wake of the death of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, the networks on Thursday hailed the life of the “progressive” pornographer, touting the “beautiful ending” of an "American icon." Many of the networks showed snippets of his 1966 discussion with conservative legend William F. Buckley. However, these networks only showed Hefner’s response. Not Buckley’s questions.
That’s probably because Buckley subjected Hefner to questions he would never get in the traditional liberal media. The National Review founder demanded, for example, that the Playboy editor answer this query:
Mr. Hefner, if you do, in fact, reject what is commonly known as the Christian code or the religious code, why do you take the position that the Playboy philosophy is non-controversial, that it is sort of congruent with the new reality? If, in fact, you have rewritten the ancient theological tablets, oughtn’t you to claim some kind of moral authority to do so? And if so, what is that moral authority? Is it your own intuition?
Hefner squirmed during this introduction:
Hugh Hefner is widely known as the founder, editor and publisher of Playboy magazine and the entrepreneur of related enterprises, among them the Playboy clubs, which are designed simultaneously to stimulate all the senses. Mr. Hefner’s magazine is most widely known for its total exposure of the human female. Though, of course, other things happen in its pages.
But Mr. Hefner insists that it’s a great deal more, that there is such a thing as the Playboy philosophy of which he is a prophet. And that philosophy is destined to liberate us all from what he variously calls superstition, tyranny, moral absolutes. That kind of thing. The philosophy made its debut about four years ago and to the surprise of everyone — and the horror of some — still continues chapter after chapter, issue after issue, about announcing to the world the philosophy of Mr. Hugh Hefner. Though Mr. Hefner deals with a number of subjects, it is his views on sex that are especially controversial and especially observed. I should like to ask him, just to begin with, whether he rejects conventional Judeo-Christian codes of sexual behavior. Mr. Hefner?
