By Rusty Pugh and Jody Brown
August 7, 2002

(AgapePress) - A major hotel in the Cincinnati area has pulled the plug on hard-core pornography. The case highlights how it may be possible for concerned citizens to get other hotels to do the same.

The Cincinnati Marriott Northeast in Mason, Ohio, has ceased offering pay-per-view porn movies to their guests. The action came after the Warren County prosecutor warned hotel officials that they could be charged with a crime for pandering obscenity. Prior to the decision by hotel management, guests were offered eight hard-core porn flicks through their TV menu under the "adult menu" category.

Phil Burress heads the Cincinnati-based group Citizens for Community Values. He says the prosecutor's threat to Marriott came about because a concerned citizen complained.

"We are adamantly opposed to citizens going in and looking at this stuff. If it was a crack house across the street, you don't go over there and talk to the guys dealing in crack and ask them to stop doing it -- you call law enforcement. If it's a violation of the law ... make a call to law enforcement and ask them to investigate a possible crime. That's why we pay our taxes, that's why we have cops, and that's why we have prosecutors."

Burress says this is a good example of how to go about getting hotels to stop offering pornographic movies. He says hotels, as the Marriott did, will pull the plug on porn rather than face possible court action -- or suffer the consequences of bad PR.

"Can you imagine the headlines: 'Marriott Prosecuted for Selling Hard-Core Pornography'?" he asks. "I don't think there's any question that anyone out there in the community that has a Marriott, or any other hotel that's dealing in hard-core pornography, should make sure that they contact their law enforcement officers or their prosecutor and ask them to do the same thing."

Burress says hard-core porn is not protected free speech, and prosecutors in every state should be doing what Warren County officials did. But he says the prosecutors will only act when a complaint is filed.

CCV also reports it has contacted the Department of Justice, asking it to investigate On Command -- a nationwide provider of in-room video-on-demand programming to more than 3,400 hotels via satellite -- for interstate transportation of obscenity, which is a violation of federal law. The group explains that under federal law, a common carrier cannot be used to pander obscenity -- and courts have ruled that satellites are common carriers.

On Command is the service providing movies to the Cincinnati Marriott Northeast.

More on Corporate Porn
Meanwhile, another Ohio-based group concerned about the negative effects of pornography has launched a public campaign and petition to persuade AT&T and Comcast Corporation to get out of the porn business.

The National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families, along with the Religious Alliance Against Pornography, says despite the profitability of cable porn, AT&T needs to understand that it is bad for business and for a company's reputation. That is why they have launched their "Fight Corporate Porn" petition.

Rick Schatz, president and CEO of the National Coalition, says despite several meetings and correspondence with company officials, AT&T and Comcast could not be persuaded to cease distribution of pornography through their cable operations. He hopes concerned citizens, by signing the online petition, will voice their opinion that what the two corporations are doing is "morally and socially irresponsible."

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