From Yahoo News:
Conservatives try to curtail hotel porn
“NEW YORK - Pornographic movies now seem nearly as pervasive in America’s hotel rooms as tiny shampoo bottles, and the lodging industry shows little concern as conservative activists rev up a protest campaign aimed at triggering a federal crackdown.
A coalition of 13 conservative groups — including the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America — took out full-page ads in some editions of USA Today earlier this month urging the Justice Department and
FBI to investigate whether some of the pay-per-view movies widely available in hotels violate federal and state obscenity laws.
The coalition also is trying to draw attention to CleanHotels.com, a directory of hotels and motels nationwide that pledge to exclude adult offerings from their in-room entertainment service.”
-In additional to this disturbing “Clean Hotels” website the article itself upsets me as well. Take the first paragraph:
“Pornographic movies now seem nearly as pervasive in America’s hotel rooms as tiny shampoo bottles, and the lodging industry shows little concern as conservative activists rev up a protest campaign aimed at triggering a federal crackdown.”
Pornography is treated as an invasive species here. The author then criticizes the lodging industry as indifferent and implies the industry is part of the imagined porn invasion. And a federal crackdown? Seriously, what the fuck? There are about a 100, no 1,000 even, more important things the government should be doing instead of cracking down on hotels that allow consenting adults to watch porn on a hotel television.
The most telling bit is about mid way down:
“Both Kathy Shepard of Hilton and Roger Conner of Marriott said the bulk of their hotels are operated by franchise-holders who make their own decisions about in-room programming. They made clear, however, that their companies consider adult movies to be an acceptable option because they can be ignored or blocked out by guests not wishing to view them.”
The porn programming can not only be ignored but can also be blocked out? Where’s the problem? The problem is the anti-porn brigade doesn’t want anyone to enjoy porn. They want to enforce their puritan beliefs on the rest of us. And that is the core reason I’m so pissy over “protests” such as this one. I hate it when people try to enforce their religious views and rules over others.
These so-called activists want to bring publicity to the website Clean Hotels. I checked it out and encourage readers to do the same. On the site you can find hotels who have agreed (or perhaps cowed to pressure) to remove porn programming from their hotels.”
If I turn on the hotel tv I may encounter Pat Robinson spouting some hatred against his newest enemy. That insults me and goes against my morals. Are they removing that type of programming from the line-up? No. I refuse to be silent as puritan crusaders try to enforce the Disneyfication of this country. So what to do? I’m writing to the hotels listed at the site to tell them I won’t be staying there because they are engaging in censorship. If I get an interesting reply back I’ll share it on here. If any of you choose to write and get a note worthy reply email me and I’ll post it.
Posted by Vixen as Political Rants, News, Activism at 11:40 PM CDT