In 1993, Dateline NBC ran an infamous piece on safety deficiencies in trucks. In that story, they performed an experiment that made it appear that certain GM Trucks' side-mounted fuel tanks were prone to exploding if the truck were hit from the side. It was revealed that they rigged the tank with model rocket engines that were triggered by remote control in oder to ensure that an explosion took place during the experiment. They had to make an embarrassing mea culpa, which included this statement:

NBC's contractor did put incendiary devices under the trucks to ensure that there would be a fire if gasoline were released from the truck's gas tank. NBC personnel knew this before we aired the program, but the public was not informed because consultants at the scene told us the devices did not start the fire. We agree with GM that we should have told our viewers about these devices. We acknowledge the placing of the incendiary devices under the truck was a bad idea from start to finish.

A dozen years later, Dateline NBC is still around, and they have retained their  knack for -- ah, how shall I phrase it? -- being at variance with the truth. This time they're doing a story on porn spam and LizVang points out how they have described the neighbourhood in which we both work:

There is one place in Toronto that might help us: It’s called Tucows. That’s the place that registers those Web site names. It’s what led us to Toronto to begin with.

The receptionist is happy to look up the name “Spunkfarm” for us. We get another address, this one very nearby.

We discover that down these dingy alleys of old industrial buildings, and a man on the street tells us that the whole area here is all dot-coms. ‘Mostly, mostly porn though,’ he adds.

We’re at Toronto’s Internet porn district. The man takes us around back to the freight elevator and gives an idea what goes on inside this building. There are more companies that seem to see porn within the building.

I won't challenge the statement that many of the offices in the Liberty Village area are occupied by people in the adult entertainment business. Neither will I challenge the fact that porn companies do register their domains with us (but via resellers, not directly -- see my earlier entry on our business model).

However, I take exception with the "dingy alleys" description of the area, a falsehood presumably used to underscore the fact that people are producing or distributing online porn.

Liberty Village, for those not familiar with the area, an old industrial park surrounding Liberty Street, hence the name. Liberty Village has a number of large brick buildings that were once factories and now function as hipster office complexes. Yes, there are a number of companies specializing in online porn, but like Tucows, there are also a number of companies that provide internet-based services of a less tittilating variety. In addition, there's at least one recording label, the Corus group of television channels (including YTV, CMT and Scream), several good restaurants, a rock-climbing gym, a management training centre, a book publisher, a couple of architectural firms, a Vespa dealership, a 24-hour grocery and living spaces (both "genuine" warehouse lofts and "loft-o-miniums"). Calling Liberty Village the "porn district" is like calling Central Park West between 70th and 80th Streets the "Beatle Death Zone".

The "dingy alleys" of which Dateline NBC speaks are actually often-used walkways for all of us who work in the neighbourhood; they're no dingier than the alleys between warehouses in New York's South Street Seaport or Cleveland's "Flats" (and considerably less dingy and poop-filled than most alleys in San Francisco's SOMA). When Dave Winer came to Tucows to speak at the OPML Meetup we hosted last week, I took him through the alleys behind the old Carpet Factory Building, and he found them quaint and charming.


The Carpet Factory Building in Liberty Village. Image taken from OneDegree.ca, whom I hope don't mind.

You needn't take my word for it. I happen to have a collection of photos that I shot in the summer of 2003 when I first got my new Nikon Coolpix SQ camera. They're a study of these allegedly dingy alleys; you be the judge. Some preview pictures are below, and you can see larger photos in photo album form or as a slideshow.


Can't you just see the sleaze oozing all over this alley? Check out the hot Volkswagen-on-Volkswagen action that's about to transpire! (Click the photo to see the slideshow)


Gateway to porn! (Click the photo to see the slideshow)


The alleyway that connects Mowat and Fraser Avenues. You can't tell, but that's a K-Y Jelly delivery van. (Click the photo to see the slideshow)


One of the so-called dingy alleys ends with this seedy courtyard, the patio of a pornographic Italian bistro. (Click the photo to see the slideshow)

One Degree has more to say about the Dateline NBC story.

---

Of course, the photographic evidence I've presented may end up being overwhelmed by Dateline NBC; this neighbourhood may be branded "the porn district" for life. In the spirit of going with the flow, here's a little song from the oddball musical Avenue Q, titled The Internet is for Porn [2.7MB MP3, May not be safe for work, but relatively tame -- the nastiest word used is "dick".] I hereby declare this song the official anthem of Liberty Village!