The nasty taint of porn (Mitt Romney should have understood)

DESERET MORNING NEWS, Salt Lake City ^ | July 10, 2007 | Editorial

[AFA-Michigan]

Pornography taints everything it touches. Mitt Romney should have understood that. So should the Marriott Corporation and other hotel owners who offer hard-core movies in hotel rooms.

Romney caught a bit of flack last week because he spent nearly 10 years on the Marriott board and yet never tried to reverse the company's policy of providing pornography on demand, something J.W. "Bill" Marriott Jr., defended in a 2000 letter as being economically important. The corporation controls only a few of the hotels with its name on them.

For a presidential candidate who has railed against pornography, this is not entirely insignificant. Even if the subject never came up at a board meeting, one can argue that at least part of the $25,000 plus stock he was paid annually for his board membership came from the money some hotel guests paid for access to the films.

Make no mistake about pornography's influence on society. A recent report from the American Psychological Association drew strong ties between pornography's pervasive influence and the "sexualization" of girls and women. This, the report said, has resulted in greater societal sexism; "fewer girls pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics; increased rates of sexual harassment and sexual violence; and an increased demand for child pornography."

Romney seemed to understand this when he told graduates at the Christian-owned Regent University that pornography poisons "our music and movies and TV and video games."

But it is indeed lucrative.

Interestingly, several hotel chains have decided to forego the extra money out of a sense of moral obligation. The Web site cleanhotels.com helps travelers locate these. The site includes what it calls, "The Clean Hotels Pledge." Among other things, this pledge recognizes, "the addictive nature of pornography" ... "that marriages, families and careers have been devastated because individuals have developed an addiction to pornography after being lured into viewing a pornographic movie in the privacy of their hotel room," and that children can accidentally be exposed to images that "can have a lasting negative effect."

That lasting negative effect can be like the stains you get from playing with a barrel of paint. Even if you don't like the color, it tells the tale of where you've been.

[AFA-Michigan]

Mormon-owned newspaper slaps Romney

NOTE: The Deseret News of Salt Lake City, Utah, is a daily newspaper owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to Editor John Hughes, Deseret News editorials are "written within the framework of values and principles basic to the church."

http://deseretnews.com/sesqui/175013763.html

[Perdogg]

What people look at in the privacy of their own hotel room, is no one’s business (assuming its legal).

[Weeedley]

Sinners are forgiven, but hypocrites always get tossed under the bus.

[JohnnyZ]

These Mormons are clearly just ridiculous anti-Mormon bigots.

[TWohlford]

Well, yeahhhhhh..... in-room movies are a huge revenue source, and XXX-rated movies bring in the most money. In fact, some people look for rooms with such service (not difficult to find).

Now, for another surprise, we’ll see that cable and dish services offer porn channels and porn PPV because... (drum roll)... there’s a huge pile of revenue to be had!

Circa 1982, I helped run a video rental desk at a stereo and record store. The porn selection was maybe 25 movies, but accounted for some 75% of the rentals. The money made off of the skin flicks pretty much replaced what the previous owner had made off of pretty ceramic “bubble pipes” before the police raid.

Being an IT guy, I can assure you that the viewing of porn is pretty common. It’s a surprise when you find a computer that hasn’t been used for that purpose.

[jdm]

“Taint” and “porn” in the same headline. LOL.

[Mr. K]

"That lasting negative effect can be like the stains you get from playing with a barrel of paint. Even if you don't like the color, it tells the tale of where you've been."

Huh? Is this guy trying to be profound? I am not a Romney supporter, but I would like to know what this authors stance was on sex with interns at the White House (oh an allegations of rape too)

[AFA-Michigan]

I post the editorial above with some trepidation, since last week the Freep moderator censored and removed my post of an Associated Press story on which the editorial above was based.

Though banned by Freep here in the good ole USA, you can still read the AP story in full in PRAVDA:

http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/06-07-2007/94588-pornography-0

By posting today, I’m gambling that this week’s moderator will concede that it may be of some newsworthy interest — and perhaps even actual political impact — that a newspaper owned by his own church has publicly taken Romney to task, noting that “at least part of the $25,000 plus stock he was paid annually for his (Marriott) board membership came from the money some hotel guests paid (to buy hard-core pornography).”

[HoustonTech]

I was going to say well done to the Deseret News for having the courage for taking on Romney until I went to the sight and found this pro-Romney editorial:

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,685192493,00.html

This kind of stuff matters only insofar as it says something about Romney's efforts to claim the religious right vote, because it illustrates at least a bit of his duplicitous side.

As far as the Deseret News is concerned, it seems they too want to have it both ways.

[Always Right]

What people look at in the privacy of their own hotel room, is no one’s business (assuming its legal).

My only issue is I would like hotels to make an adult activate such a service. If there are minors in the room, the hotel could be peddling porn to minors.

[ASA Vet]

The problem is the kidnapping and forced viewing. The hotel has huge guys forcing the poor innocents to be exposed to sinful smut against their wills.

There are always folks willing to mind other peoples business.

I'm much more anti-Rino Mit due to his failure to support 2A. That's a non-starter for me. NO MORE RINO's.

[Perdogg]

I agree.

[Joe 6-pack]

I think the question that needs to be asked is whether or not Romney's dog had access to porn while he was strapped to the roof of the car. That's the kind of information voters need to make a truly informed decision.

< /sarcasm>

[Palladin]

Looks like Mitt is two-faced on certain issues.

Is this a man conservatives can trust?

[Pinkbell]

I guess they are publishing editorials on Romney from both sides. It doesn’t seem that Romney is a hard core Mormom like the people out in Utah. I wonder how many Mormons are supporting Romney and how many don’t find him conservative enough.

[donna]

Maybe he’s trying for the porn vote: Just a REAl guy, not a REAL Mormon.

[AFA-Michigan]

Houston, the pro-Romney piece you found was a guest opinion, not an editorial by the Deseret News itself.

[donna]

Think about staying in the rooms after they are used for porn viewing. Ick. HIV and syphilis germs and illegal alien maids.

[lesser_satan]

Blah, blah, f’in blah. You’re really a one-note johnny. This is the most trivial, pathetic non-story of a hit piece of I’ve ever seen on any candidate (with the exception of the LA Slimes latest s-hit piece against Fred), and you post it ad-nauseum. If this is they worst dirt you can find on Mitt, he must not be too bad.