Cowabunga! Surf Shop, `Dr. Laura' Square Off

SANTA ANA, Calif. - In the war of words between the huge radio star, the huge publishing czar and the not-so-huge surf shop owners, the 7-year-old son of Tom and Leslie Moore contracted a mild case of paranoia.

"What if people at school believe what that lady on the radio said about Dad?" he asked, crying, as he headed to his first day of first grade. "What if my teacher believes her?"

Such is life these days for the Moores, owner of the Beach Access surf-shop chain, and one of their employees, Ryan Scheiber.

Two months ago, radio talk show host Laura Schlessinger said, on air, that the Moores and Scheiber were guilty of putting pornography in front of children - a crime in California. While shopping in the store with her son and husband, she found a copy of Big Brother Skateboarding magazine - a magazine she describes as "stealth pornography" - in a pile of periodicals set out for Beach Access customers to read.

"I think it ought to matter when any company . . . intentionally does things to harm children," Schlessinger told her "Dr. Laura" show audience - about 18 million in 450 cities.

This month, the fight escalated. Schlessinger filed a slander lawsuit against the Moores, saying they damaged her reputation by publicly describing her accusations as "lies."

The Moores and Scheiber say they never put porn in front of kids, intentionally or otherwise.

And, they add, they, too, are against letting kids look at pornography. Eventually, they plan to meet Schlessinger in court. Their lawyer has sent Schlessinger a demand for retraction, usually the first step in a slander lawsuit.

For now, the Moores, of Newport Beach, and Scheiber, of Chino Hills, are concerned with just getting by. They say their day-to-day lives are more complicated since they were publicly branded as "proud" pornographers.

Angry phone calls - some including threats - are part of their regular routine. Legal bills, something they rarely thought of before July, are growing. Sales at their key store, the Beach Access in South Coast Plaza, have been spotty, particularly during the critical back-to-school season.

And closer to their hearts, they say, are the often critical comments from people in their daily world - the supermarket, restaurants, the neighborhood.

"One person spoke on the radio for eight minutes, and it completely changed our lives," says Leslie Moore, her smile tightening. "You'd be shocked at how many people believe her."

Big Brother is aimed primarily at teenage boys and, in some issues, it runs sexually graphic and sometimes violent stories along with articles and photos about skateboarding. The 100,000-circulation magazine is sold at skate shops and surf shops and some bookstores, usually without the wrappings and labels found on adult periodicals.

"A parent who idly flips through it probably won't notice anything but photos of skateboarders and skateboarding," Schlessinger said on air this month. "It's only when you sit down and actually read it cover to cover - which is what kids do - that you realize its true nature."

Schlessinger has railed against pornography for many years.

Schlessinger started talking about Big Brother in May, the month after the magazine's publisher, Larry Flynt, printed 24-year-old nude photos of Schlessinger. Those pictures, taken by a onetime boyfriend of Schlessinger's, ran in Flynt's better-known publication, Hustler.

Schlessinger's spokesman, Allan Mayer, says her beef with Big Brother has nothing to do with her nude photos.

Scheiber says the magazine had been sent to the store unsolicited, and that he wasn't particularly familiar with its contents. He also says he took the magazine out of the store right after Schlessinger left, and was in the process of removing it when she was still in the store, talking to him. He says she never asked him to remove the magazine. "She never gave me a chance," he says.

The magazine has not been in the store since the confrontation.