Missouri librarians latest to discover: Banning makes books popular Meanwhile, ACLU reports 218 challenges to remove 134 books from school libraries across Texas last year. 09.24.02 Federal appeals court dismisses privacy lawsuit against ABC News 9th Circuit says public interest in news gathered for 'PrimeTime Live' segment outweighed any offense that occurred when reporters secretly videotaped discussions at Arizona lab. 09.24.02 Rutgers to pay ACLU's attorneys fees in battle over magazine ad N.J. appeals panel decided last month that alumni magazine discriminated against group critical of school's focus on Division I athletics. 09.24.02 http://www.freedomforum.org/about/today.asp National hotel terrorism? Gene sez- I Told You This Was Coming: Citizens for Community Values Branches Out in National Terrorism [From USA Today]: A group that helped pull the plug on explicit adult movies at three Cincinnati-area hotels met Monday in Washington, D.C., with 14 other grass-roots organizations in hopes of X-ing out such entertainment at lodgings nationwide. ''We're going to put on a full-court press . . . to educate people that hotels are distributing hard-core pornography,'' says Phil Burress, president of the Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values, one of the groups in the coalition that he says represents more than 20 million families and meets regularly to discuss decency issues. Burress says the coalition will urge Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Justice Department to crack down on hotel porn, which often is distributed across state lines. Susan Dryden, a Justice Department spokeswoman, says the department ''is committed to enforcement of federal obscenity laws.'' Hotel room pay-per-view offerings have become more graphic in recent years, showing close-ups of all manner of sex acts, Burress says. The pro-family groups say kids can access many hotel skinflicks at the click of a button. In August, his group alerted prosecutors to the nature of adult fare at the Marriott Northeast in Mason, Ohio, and at a Newport, Ky., Comfort Suites. Authorities got similar complaints about a Newport Travelodge. The three hotels agreed to stop the offerings after prosecutors said they violated community standards of decency -- the court test for whether material is legally obscene. Currently, the American Family Association of Michigan is urging prosecutors in that state to go after hotels offering explicit fare in Grand Rapids, Holland and Midland. Across the country, perhaps unknowingly, ''hotels are breaking the law. A lot of the material they sell opens them up to prosecution,'' says Bruce Taylor, a former prosecutor and now president of the non-profit National Law Center for Children and Families. Hotel chains say it's a matter of choice. ''We understand that there's a level of sensitivity and different feelings about this subject matter,'' says Roger Conner, a Marriott spokesman. ''We provide a wide range of choices, and anyone can block (adult entertainment) out. No one has to see it.'' But many guests are choosing the racy stuff. ''It's a major business in the U.S. hotel market -- approximately $500 million a year,'' says Leonard Sabal, president of Cabil Corp., which helps hotels bill for in-room entertainment. Typically, 50% to 60% of pay-per-view hotel sales involve adult products, he says. Explicitness has increased ''because the customers want it.'' Tad Walden, vice president of marketing at On Command, a leading provider of a wide range of in-room hotel entertainment, says its adult fare ''is the same as (offered by) cable companies or satellite TV companies'' for home viewing. And, ''we try to adhere to the various standards in various communities.'' Meanwhile, the Omni hotel chain -- which voluntarily removed adult movies two years ago -- reports that it has lost revenue, but ''we have had over 50,000 messages of support,'' says spokeswoman Kim Blackmon. One traveling businessman wrote: ''Thanks for taking away the temptation.''
