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Coalition attacks pornography
A coalition made up of 15 small organizations
met in Washington, D.C., Monday with big
plans to moralize the hotel by banishing
the ever-so-popular hotel porn channels.
An article written by Kitty Bean Yancey
on the USA Today Web site, “Coalition Wants
to Change Hotel Porn Channels,” states that
one Cincinnati-based group in the coalition,
Citizens for Community Values, has already
succeeded in removing explicit adult entertainment
from the screens of three hotels in the
Cincinnati area.
This coalition now has nationwide aspirations.
The coalition plans to persuade Attorney
General John Ashcroft and the Justice Department
to seek out the porn-peddling hotels and
enforce federal obscenity laws.
This action of attempting to impose their
morals and beliefs on everybody in the nation
is what makes some people despise these
so-called religious and family-interest
organizations.
Regardless of how any anti-porn, family
or religious groups feel about it, pornography
is in fact a legal business in the United
States and it will probably remain so in
the future. If people do not like it, they
do not have to watch it. Hotel guests have
the option of asking the hotel to block
explicit entertainment from the television
in their room, or they can just keep the
television off if they do not want to risk
the chance of catching a glimpse of something
they would rather not see.
This coalition’s desire to ban hotel porn
is so absurd it’s comical. But what is not
funny is the complete and blatant double
standard it represents.
Groups such as these enjoy and utilize their
rights of freedom of expression, speech
and religion, as they should. Any infringement
of these rights would be an injustice and
would not only not be tolerated by the specific
group, but would also not be tolerated by
any American citizen who values his or her
rights.
However, these same groups are so quick
to attack and threaten the rights of others
when it concerns something that may conflict
with their beliefs, such as pornography.
Why do people in this coalition believe
they have the right to tell hotels that
they cannot offer a perfectly legal product
to their customers?
According to the same USA Today article,
many hotel guests select the adult entertainment
channels, bringing in about $500 million
a year. “Typically, 50 percent to 60 percent
of pay-per-view hotel sales involve adult
products,” the article states.
The hotels are profiting from the sale of
a legal product. They are not pushing the
product on anyone, it is merely being offered.
Hotels should not be punished or barred
from this accepted method of doing business.
If we really look at this situation closely,
the fact is the coalition has a problem
with pornography. However, the pornography
industry is not as easy to attack as the
hotel industry. The coalition would never
be able to wage an outright war on the pornography
industry with the support of the attorney
general and the Justice Department. But
an attempt to ban adult channels in hotels
may be a more attainable goal. The proposed
ban is just a disguised attempt to slowly
work toward banning pornography in general.
That is a violation of rights that will
not be tolerated.
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