Feds Urged to Investigate Providers of Hotels' In-Room Hardcore Porn

by Ed Thomas and Jody Brown
August 11, 2006

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(AgapePress) - - A full-page ad in a national newspaper this week kicked off the efforts of a coalition of pro-family organizations in getting the U.S. Justice Department to investigate several vendors who sell pornography to nationwide hotel chains. They say the material from providers OnCommand and LodgeNet violates federal and state laws about distributing obscene material.

Concerned Women for America, the Family Research Council, and Morality in Media are among the 12 groups joining the American Family Association (AFA) to protest the matter. The ad in USA Today asks the Justice Department to examine the movie material sold by both providers -- material that AFA president Tim Wildmon says meets the definition of illegal pornography.

That is why, says Wildmon, the groups -- under the banner of "The Campaign for Corporate Responsibility" -- are essentially telling the DOJ that "much of the hardcore pornography which is offered in the hotel rooms across America is illegal."

Not only does the coalition of groups believe the movie content is illegal, they are convinced such hardcore porn leads to sex crimes against women and children. The ad quotes three individuals whose work supports that assertion, and also makes the case that financial gain is the primary reason why hardcore porn -- which it refers to as a "toxic 'drug'" -- is readily available in virtually any hotel room in the country.

"It's ... time the producers, the distributors, and the hotels are held accountable for the tragic human and cultural expense from which they profit," states the ad.

A statement from Concerned Women for America says the providers and hotels appear to be conveniently ignoring the link between hardcore porn addiction and dangerous sexual behavior. "This oversight," says CWA, "suggests that corporate giants care more about financial profit than the welfare of women and children (who are the primary victims of sex offenders who feed on porn) and the psychological and moral health of the viewers whose addictions they feed."

With the evidence linking hardcore porn to sexual crimes and family breakdowns, Wildmon says the groups want the DOJ and other federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation to enforce existing laws that distributors like OnCommand and LodgeNet routinely ignore. "We just don't think that the Justice Department is doing enough to hold these hotels accountable," says the pro-family leader.

According to Wildmon, all the groups feel it is important the DOJ enforce those laws. "Much of what's offered in hotel rooms in terms of the triple-x type material is the same kind of material that would be prosecuted were it sold down the street at a movie rental store," he explains. "It goes beyond just sexually explicit into hardcore material, which makes it legally obscene in our estimation."

The ad accuses OnCommand and LodgeNet of being "largely responsible for flooding U.S. hotels with the majority of highly alarming and pornographic content."

OnCommand, based in Denver, boasts of providing "entertainment, information and business" services to almost 900,000 rooms in approximately 3,300 lodging properties. South Dakota-based LodgeNet claims to have the world's largest customer base that includes more than 6,000 properties with more than 1 million hotel rooms. Some of the biggest names in the hotel industry use the two providers' services, including Best Western, Four Seasons, Hilton, Hyatt, Holiday Inn, La Quinta, Marriott, Sheraton, and Radisson.