Some will argue the models found in SI's swimsuit issue can be found regularly in other popular magazines aimed at a male audience. While this is true, those "other" magazines do not market themselves as America's premier sports publication.

SI introduced its first swimwear edition in January of 1964. Originally it was published to generate interest during a slack time for sports news.

The initial SI swimsuit issue featured only five pages of models wearing suits that, I might add, were modest by today's standards. The remainder of the magazine was, as always, dedicated to sports news and features.

Fast forward to 2012 and SI makes no pretense. Nothing is modest. There is not a single sports-related story in this year's swimsuit edition.

When a serious and reputable sports magazine can publish an issue like that, it is clear America has embraced pornography.

"The mainstream acceptance of pornography has become a social fact," wrote Ben Shapiro in his book "Porn Generation."

In fact, it seems that what is known as soft-core pornography hardly raises an eyebrow in American pop-culture. The hard-core variety is less tolerated in public, but if statistics are correct, it is ever-present and living large on computer screens and cable television.

Further evidence that the pornography on display in the SI swimsuit issue is now socially acceptable: The models featured in the magazine routinely appear on the newsmagazine programs of national news organizations. And news outlets wonder what has happened to their credibility.

SI has even persuaded serious athletes to shuck their clothes, as well as their dignity, and appear in the swimsuit issue. This year's issue sports a professional golfer, a soccer player and a swimmer.

One fact I found shocking is that a female writer, New York Magazine's Amy Odell, wrote that "one-third of the issue's 70 million readers (actually viewers may be a more accurate word) are women." Continued...