With an increasing number of adult companies working to place their titles on hotel PPV systems and the looming technological convergence of TV and web mediums which may soon result in TV-based, high-speed web surfing in hotel rooms across the country, the effort by Morality In Media to get Marriott to drop adult programming is of more than passing concern for the adult industry.
In his letter, Peters asserted that he avoids staying at Marriott hotels “despite their quality and affordability, because Marriott Hotels is a major distributor of hardcore pornography on its pay-TV channels.”
Despite his purported boycott of Marriott, Peters said in the letter that he did recently stay at a Marriott because his “sister-in-law made the reservation for my wife and I without letting us know in advance where we would be staying.”
“I have been told [truthfully or otherwise] that hotels that are actually owned by your family do not carry pornography, and for that reason when I saw the large portrait of your father and you in the hotel lobby, I thought that perhaps this hotel was ‘family owned’ and that there would be no in-room porn,” Peters said.
Upon further inspection of his room’s TV menu, however, Peters discovered that the Marriott in question did carry adult PPV titles, including “Reign of Tera 2,” “Dorm Room Bang-A-Thon” and “Hustlers Barely Legal No. 60,” among others.
“If you say you are not an arbiter of morals or of good taste and that you are just giving many of your customers what they want, you really should be ashamed of yourself,” Peters said.
In expressing his indignation, Peters cited a familiar set of claims about the adverse impact of adult entertainment on American society.
“You should also be aware that distribution of such materials, among other things, contributes to the breakup of marriages, to prostitution, to sexual assaults against both children and adults, to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and to the erosion of decency,” Peters asserted in the letter.
Apparently mindful of Marriott’s bottom line, Peters said that he anticipated that “any loss of customers who decide to stay elsewhere because they are addicted to pornography will be more than offset by the gain in customers who want to stay in nice but also pornography free hotels,” adding that Marriott’s “own conscience should also rest much easier.”
The letter also was cc’d to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. Romney, a Republican and former member of the board of directors of Marriott, has faced criticism from the socially conservative wing of his party over his past association with the hotel chain, due to Marriott’s offering of adult PPV titles.