Open Letter to Mariott Hotels CEO:
Get Rid of the Porn
NEW YORK, July
23 /Christian Newswire/ -- Robert Peters, President of Morality in
Media, sent the following letter to Marriott Hotels CEO Bill
Marriott on July 18, 2007:
Dear Mr.
Marriott:
Whenever
possible, I avoid staying at Marriott Hotels, despite their quality
and affordability, because Marriott Hotels is a major distributor of
hardcore pornography on its pay-TV channels.
I realize that
Marriott is not the only major hotel chain that distributes pay-TV
pornography. Marriott is, however, the only major chain whose
founder (your father) was honored by Morality in Media (see enclosed
brochure) for his efforts to fight pornography.
Recently,
however, I did stay at a Marriott while visiting family on Mother’s
Day. My sister-in-law made the reservation for my wife and I without
letting us know in advance where we would be staying.
I have been
told (truthfully or otherwise) that hotels that are actually owned
by your family do not carry pornography, and for that reason when I
saw the large portrait of your father and you in the hotel lobby, I
thought that perhaps this hotel was “family owned” and that there
would be no in-room porn.
I was further
encouraged when I checked the Hotel Resources book in our room under
the topic “Movies, TV and Radio,” where I read: “If you’d like to
watch a movie, we offer new releases in four categories: Comedy,
Drama, Action and Adventure.” “Hallelujah,” I thought, “no porn!”
Right then (I
had expected to write to you much sooner), I decided to thank you
for not offering pornography in our hotel and to encourage you to
adopt the same policy for all Marriott Hotels.
Before we
checked out, however, I decided to make sure this was a “porn free”
hotel by turning on the TV and clicking to Menu Options. Sadly, what
I found was not only a link to “Hollywood Movies” but also to
“Adults Only.” There was a “Must Be 18 To Enter” warning, but proof
of age was not required to proceed and view film titles (with
pictorial/written promotional material) like these:
“Reign of Tera 2” (“hardcore
action”)
“Lesbian Secretary” (“hardcore”)
“Hardcore POV” (“This is hardcore
point of view”)
“Rock Hard Porn: Young Sluts”
“100% Sex: Sophomore Sluts”
“Dorm Room Bang-A-Thon” (“We
found the sweetest sluts…and screwed the decency out of them”)
“Crazy Campus Sluts”
“Hustlers Barely Legal #60”
“Hustlers Desperate House Tramps”
“Horny Housewife Auditions”
“All Sex: XXX fantasies”
(“imagine your raunchiest, dirtiest, fantasies come to life”)
If you say you
are not an arbiter of morals or of good taste and that you are just
giving many of your customers what they want, you really should be
ashamed of yourself.
You should
also be aware that distribution of such materials, among other
things, contributes to the breakup of marriages, to prostitution, to
sexual assaults against both children and adults, to the spread of
sexually transmitted diseases and to the erosion of decency.
You should
also be aware that in the 1973 Miller v. California obscenity case
the Supreme Court said that persons who traffic in materials that
“depict or describe patently offensive ‘hard core’ sexual conduct”
are “subject to prosecution for the sale or exposure of obscene
materials.”
Morality in
Media, among many others, is of the opinion that a criminal
prosecution of a “mainstream” corporation that is in the business of
distributing hardcore pornography is long overdue.
It is my
earnest hope, however, that even after so many years of ignoring
complaints about the sale of pornography in your hotels, you will
yet do the right thing for your family, church and nation.
I would expect
that any loss of customers who decide to stay elsewhere because they
are addicted to pornography will be more than offset by the gain in
customers who want to stay in nice but also pornography free hotels.
Your own conscience should also rest much easier.
Sincerely,
Robert Peters, President of Morality in Media
