Group Demands Marriott Turn Off the Porn

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mojo-photo-marriott.jpgFrom citizenlink.com:

Focus on the Family Action is calling on families to co-sign a letter urging Marriott hotels to stop offering in-room pornography. The letter, signed by 47 family groups, will be presented at a meeting May 14 between pro-family leaders and Marriott International officials. It’s the first time a major hotel chain has agreed to meet to discuss the issue.
Tom Minnery, senior vice president of government and public policy of Focus on the Family Action, said Marriott can’t continue to present itself as a family-friendly hotel chain while peddling pornography. “Pornography is highly addictive and extremely destructive,” he said. “In the ‘secrecy’ of a hotel room, pornography can be especially dangerous because it creates a sexualized climate that puts men, women and children at risk.”

Focus on the Family Action then demanded Marriott remove all beds, comfy cushions and plush carpets from rooms, since those soft, inviting spaces just make addictive, dangerous fornication all the more likely. And don’t get us started on those oh-so-sexy coffeemakers, heating things up! Hub-ba!

After the jump: I didn’t mean to press “buy,” really!

This seems pretty silly, but when you think about it, it’s the under-15 set that is most likely to understand how the remote works in those hotel rooms. Is the family vacation to Kansas City really the time you want to have That Talk with little Jimmy? Our own Debra Dickerson has argued right here on the Riff in favor of “times, and places, where life can reliably remain PG”; is the local Marriott one of those places? I’m honestly inclined to agree, if only because I hit the wrong button once whilst browsing the porn titles in a hotel room out of bored curiosity, and accidentally spent $9.99 on who knows what, Buxom Babes in Beantown or whatever. Bored curiosity! Really! And I swear it was an accident! You don’t believe me? Come on, as I told the front desk clerk when I was trying to get it taken off my bill: what do I want with straight porn? I can just watch MTV for that.

Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user Aimos.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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