Contact: Robert Peters, President, Morality in Media, 212-870-3210; www.obscenitycrimes.org

NEW YORK, Jan. 14 /Christian Newswire/ -- The president of Morality in Media, Robert Peters, submits to the media the following letter and is available for comment:

January 11, 2008

Mr. J.W. "Bill" Marriott, Jr.
Chairman and CEO of Marriott International
Marriott Drive
Washington, DC 20058

Dear Mr. Marriott:

I am writing again about the pay porn channels provided at Marriott Hotels. This time I have two sisters-in-laws to blame for booking my wife and me at your hotels. As I mentioned in my letter of July 18, 2007, when I choose a hotel room I try to avoid staying at hotels that offer pay porn channels.

The fact that both of my sisters-in-laws booked rooms for us at Marriott Hotels, however, is one reason that I am writing to you. You have built a nationwide chain of quality hotels that includes modestly priced hotels, impressive big city hotels and pleasant resorts. I would love to be able to stay at your hotels with a clear conscience and encourage others to do likewise.

The other reason that I am writing is because you profess to be a Mormon; and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is 100% against pornography, which gives me at least a faint hope that you may some day come to your senses and disassociate your family name and faith from pornographic films with titles like these, which were offered at the Marriott hotels in Massachusetts and California where my wife and I stayed during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays:

"Young Trophy Wives" "Naughty Neighborhood Wives" "Cheating Wives" "Please Pump My Wife" "Mothers Do It To" "When My Husband Is Away" "Housewives Need Cash" "Secret Interracial Wife Orgy" "Slutty Older Women"

"College Teen" "Young Office Sluts" "Young Bait" "College Amateur Invasion" "Tight Virgin Holes" "So Young So Tight"
"Sticky Young Sluts" "Sex With the Teacher" "18 and Corrupted"

A few years ago, I wrote an article, "The Link Between Pornography and Violent Sex Crimes" (published at www.ObscenityCrimes.org, "Porn Problem & Solutions" page), which makes a strong argument that pornography is a causative factor in many violent sex crimes.

But even if there were no link between pornography and violent sex crimes, pornography would still pose a big problem for society because of its detrimental effect on marriage. When a husband (and it usually is the husband) becomes addicted to pornography, a number of things can happen. He can lose sexual interest in his wife. He can act out on his wife what he has viewed in pornography (she will often not appreciate what he wants to do to or with her). He can go outside his marriage to satisfy his porn fueled sexual fantasies with prostitutes. He can waste family funds feeding his porn addiction. He can lose his job (e.g., for misuse of computers) or wind up in prison (e.g., for child porn).

Another concern that wives have about their husbands' addiction to pornography is the effect it may have on their children. Children may see their father viewing pornography. They may seek out or stumble into pornography that their father views. They may become an object of his sexual desire.

Frankly, I don't see how you think a single man who may marry or an already married man will benefit from watching porn films with titles like: "Naughty Neighborhood Wives," "Please Pump My Wife," "When My Husband Is Away," "Young Bait," "Young Office Sluts," and "So Young So Tight."

A press release issued on December 6, 2006 by the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility rightly applauded Marriott International's Board of Directors for approving a change in the corporation's "Human Rights policy" to include a section on the "Protection of Children." Specifically, the change in policy involved measures to curb child sex tourism. Evidence mounts, however, that the explosion of "adult pornography" contributes to trafficking in children.

For example, the "Child Pornography Fact Sheet" (published at www.cypbertipline.com) states that persons who possess child pornography include those who are sexually "indiscriminate," meaning they are "constantly looking for new and different sexual stimuli." A recent article, "Confessions of a child porn addict" (published in the Buffalo News, Oct. 17, 2007), reported the following:

"Clarence [last name omitted] once enjoyed the adult pornography sites he viewed on the Web. But after a while, the thrill was gone. So [he] started clicking on some of the ads that popped up on his computer screen above the naked men and women he was watching. He was seeing something new – young teenagers and even young children, posing in the nude, having sex with each other, or being molested by adults. At first, [he] was appalled. But once the shock wore off, [he] couldn't get enough. Like thousands of other men…he was hooked…"

In this respect, Marriott is much like the U.S. Justice Department and FBI. On the one hand, these government agencies expend significant resources combating sexual abuse of children and sexual trafficking of women and children. On the other hand, they have refused to devote more than token resources to curbing the explosion of illegal obscenity that helps fuel these crimes.

Morality in Media and others are working to change this see-little-evil about obscenity policy at the federal level. I note here that a poll conducted in 2005 by Harris Interactive found that 77% of adults supported the Justice Department's then-reported new effort to enforce obscenity laws.

I don't say this to frighten you, but so that you may have another reason to ask your Board to adopt a policy that, at minimum, prohibits distribution of sexual materials that may be or are obscene.

If a judge determines that there is probable cause that a hotel has distributed an obscene movie, those responsible can be prosecuted for violating a federal (and in many cases a state) obscenity law.

The first reason to ask your Board to drop the porn is because it is the only decent thing to do. I think there is yet another reason for doing so – over time it will prove good for your business.

Sincerely,


Robert Peters
President

cc. Mitt Romney