Posted on 11/25/2009 4:00:09 AM PST by MauiPete
Child AbuseWatch Protests Pete Townshend as NFL Super Bowl entertainment
Child AbuseWatch, the national child abuse prevention organization, today published an open letter to the National Football League and CBS. In the correspondence they asked the NFL to drop Pete Townshend from the Super Bowl half time entertainment line-up.
The reason? Pete Townshend’s record as a sexual offender on the British Violent and Sex Offender Register (ViSOR).
Townshend was on the UK register for five years from 2003 – 2008 for accessing and admitting to using his credit card to pay for viewing child pornography. He was caught during a criminal investigation into child porn by the British police. For full details and the letters to the NFL see the links at the end of the article.
Child AbuseWatch CEO, Evin Daly, wrote to Roger Goodell, the NFL’s Executive Vice President copying a line up of senior executives and CBS’s Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS Corporation and Peter Dunn, President, CBS Television Stations. No response has yet been received. This the second letter that Child AbuseWatch has sent to the NFL about this concern.
“What is the NFL thinking?” Daly commented. “Super Bowl is a family event, probably the most important one of the year. Janet Jackson caused uproar over a partially exposed boob. Townshend was a registered child sexual offender….”
Mr. Daly wrote last week to Florida governor Charlie Crist asking him to intercede in convincing the NFL to drop Townshend, to which a supportive response was received. Grassroots efforts are also starting. At an event in Florida last weekend a petition objecting to the Townshend was circulated which will be forward to the NFL.
So what's next? “Due to the lack of response from the NFL and CBS we will be writing to them again,” a Child AbuseWatch spokesperson said. “In the next correspondence we will copy the leagues sponsors and a number of child protection groups who have already shown interest in supporting our request.”
According to the NFL website sponsors include Burger King, Campbell’s, Canon USA, Coors Brewing, Dairy Management Inc., FedEx, Frito-Lay, Gatorade, General Motors, IBM, Masterfoods, MBNA, Motorola, News America, PepsiCo: Diet Pepsi, PepsiCo: Tropicana, Procter & Gamble (Prilosec), Schering-Plough (Levitra), Southwest Airlines, Sprint, Visa.
Child AbuseWatch advises that anyone wishing to send a letter of complaint to the NFL may do so here:
Roger Goodell, Executive Vice President, NFL, 280 Park Ave, New York, NY 10017 Or email: GoodellR@nfl.com, info@nfl.com
One Child International Inc., is the non-profit operator of Child AbuseWatch. Child AbuseWatch (CAN) is a child abuse prevention and education network. The network delivers essential child abuse prevention information and crisis resources across the United States and worldwide for the public. CAN provides predator tracking and investigative resources to case managers and law enforcement.
Article Resources
Open Letter to NFL 11/25/09 http://www.abusewatch.net/Child%20AbuseWatch%20letter%20NFL%20112509.pdf
Letter to NFL 11/16/09 http://www.butlerreport.com/Child%20AbuseWatch%20Letter%20NFL%20111609.pdf
Child AbuseWatch NFL/Townshend file http://www.abusewatch.net/CAN_NFL_Townshend.php
Paging Rush Limbaugh...
Does anyone really believe that an organization that allows dangerous criminals including people who abuse animals to play is going to give a rat’s rear end about having a guy who downloaded child porn play a halftime show?
Tommy can you hear me?
At least that is his story....I personally believe it, but let each determine what they believe...
Now that sums up the situation as well as anything posted today can or will. Perfect. Bullseye. ;^)
Now Rush OTOH, now there's a fairly dangerous man. LOL
The NFL's literally messin' with the primal forces of nature.
Should be interesting.
Many who watch will only recognize them if they do those CSI themesongs.
But Daltry’s voice is nowhere near what it was in the early 70’s. Could be cringe worthy.
BTW, Townshend said he was doing research on child abuse.
But he also has/had an eye for men.
Oh...ya....forgot.Hussein.
“Townshend has been replaced by R. Kelly “....
/s
Yah,and Roman Polanski was only doing research on the effects that Quaaludes have on 13 year old girls.
Hey he never, acted upon it to anyones knowledge and whether queer or straight, I am not sure, he has had relationships with adults....
from wikipedia Personal life
Townshend met Karen Astley (daughter of composer Ted Astley and sister of record producer Jon Astley), while in art school and married her in 1968. The couple separated in 1994 and Townshend announced they would divorce in 2000. They have three children: Emma (b. 1969), who is a singer/songwriter, Aminta (b. 1971), and Joseph (b. 1989). For many years Townshend refused to confirm or deny rumours that he was bisexual. In a 2002 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, however, he explained that, although he engaged in some brief same-sex experimentation in the 1960s, he is heterosexual. Townshend currently lives with his long-time partner, musician Rachel Fuller, in Richmond, England. He also owns a house in Churt, Surrey, England.
As part of the Operation Ore investigations, Townshend was cautioned by the police in 2003 after acknowledging a credit card access in 1999 to the Landslide website alleged to advertise child pornography. He stated in the press and on his website that he had been engaged in research for A Different Bomb (a now-abandoned book based on an anti-child pornography essay published on his website in January 2002) and his autobiography, and as part of a campaign against child pornography.
The police searched his house and confiscated 14 computers and other materials, and after a four-month forensic investigation confirmed that they had found no evidence of child abuse images. Consequently, the police offered a caution rather than pressing charges, issuing a statement: "After four months of investigation by officers from Scotland Yard's child protection group, it was established that Mr Townshend was not in possession of any downloaded child abuse images." In a statement issued by his solicitor, Townshend said, "I accept that I was wrong to access this site, and that by doing so, I broke the law, and I have accepted the caution that the police have given me." As a statutory consequence of accepting the caution, Townshend was entered on the Violent and Sex Offender Register for five years.
In April 2007, an article in The Guardian stated that Townshend was "falsely accused of accessing child pornography". After obtaining copies of the Landslide hard drives and tracing Townshend's actions, investigative journalist Duncan Campbell wrote in PC Pro Magazine, "Under pressure of the media filming of the raid, Townshend appears to have confessed to something he didn't do." Campbell states that their entire evidence against Townshend was that he accessed a single site among the Landslide offerings which was not connected with child pornography.
That goes far in explaining the imagery of some of his music; it's a little dark sometimes.
Well hold on. They are using BO for a big “volunteer” push, and he is an avowed America-hater. Shouldn’t he be barred from appearing, too?
I hope those letters this nutjob sends to the NFL get tossed in the trash where they belong. I can’t believe someone wants to drag up something that’s over and done with just so they can look like they’re doing something “meaningful”
Stand back and watch the chauvanist ego.... Forego the innocent, the helpless. They who turn a blind eye are as, if not more culpable.
They are the small people too meek to take a stand.
The small people who have small minds, and smaller lives...
The NFL plays to those small minds. Sad.
Excellent point.
But does that mean we should just stand by, mute?
1. Pete Townshend wasn’t “in possession” of anything.
2. He had the proof to back up his research claim.
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