NEW YORK—In its never-ending campaign to decide what adults can see and hear—even if that means turning the U.S. Constitution inside out—Morality in Media (MIM) is squaring off against hosting company GoDaddy.com over its upcoming commercials for Super Bowl XLIV.
“According to news reports, GoDaddy.com commercials will again appear during the Super Bowl game, which this year airs Feb. 7 on CBS at 6:30 p.m. EST,” MIM President Robert Peters said in a press release issued Wednesday.
"It is no secret that GoDaddy.com loves to 'push the envelope' when it comes to the content of its ads,” Peters continued, “and it would appear that this year's Super Bowl ads may push as close to the indecency line as CBS network 'censors' will allow, which could be as close as CBS thinks it can get away with.
"For an advanced look at what GoDaddy.com may have in store for football fans of all ages during this year's Super Bowl game, parents in particular should check out the sexually oriented content that appears on that company's website under the subhead, 'Super Bowl 2010 - Sneak Preview.'
"Sure looks like lesbian strip performances to me.”
Obviously, despite the fact none of the commercials contain any nudity, Peters has a big problem with the very existence of homosexuality. In simply labeling the performances “lesbian,” he knows he will inflame the passions of the intolerant faithful while denigrating all gay people.
Not content merely to fan the flames of homophobia, Peters also goes after GoDaddy.com for hosting legal adult websites.
"But the content of [GoDaddy.com's] Super Bowl ads is not the only problem,” Peters noted in the release. “GoDaddy.com also provides services to businesses that distribute over the internet, free of charge and without proof of age, hardcore adult pornography that depicts, among other things, urination, fisting (sticking a fist into the vagina), double penetration (sticking two penises into a female’s anus [sic]), bondage, incest, teen sex, rape and bestiality.”
Rape, of course, is a crime, as are bestiality and incest in most jurisdictions. So is teen sex if the performers are younger than 18. MIM may have crossed a legal line in its accusations by implying GoDaddy.com abets illegal activity. Otherwise, the Supreme Court already has ruled on the legality of pornography where consenting adults are concerned.
But Peters isn’t finished. No MIM press release is complete without an utter bastardization of the Constitution.
"Now, it may be that GoDaddy.com is often not aware that a website it is providing one or more services to is offering for sale hardcore adult pornography on the internet,” Peters stated in the release. “It may also be, depending on the nature of the service, that GoDaddy.com would have a defense under the law.
"But if GoDaddy.com, knowing the hardcore nature of a website's content, provides some of its services to a site which is later charged with violating internet obscenity laws, I think GoDaddy.com could be charged with aiding and abetting (or facilitating) violations of these criminal laws.”
GoDaddy.com, as an ISP as well as a registrar, is legally required to remove illegal content after it is notified that such exists on its servers. The only adult content that is de facto contraband is child pornography and, in some cases, bestiality. All other sexually explicit material is legal until a jury deems it obscene, and even then, GoDaddy.com most likely would be exempt from prosecution under safe harbor provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Otherwise, no one in the country would dare host an adult website.
The same Constitution that protects GoDaddy.com's right to host adult websites also protects Peters' right to make unsupportable comments.
He may have gone too far this time, though.
On a related note, for the first time ever another Christian anti-porn group, Focus on the Family (FOF), also has an ad in the upcoming Super Bowl.
"Focus on the Family, a Christian family-help organization based in Colorado Springs, Colo., has purchased one 30-second ad that will run in the game, and anticipates no frowns from CBS, which is slated to broadcast Super Bowl XLIV from South Florida on Feb. 7," reports Advertising Age.
So what are the chances that MIM bashed Godaddy and CBS because FOF couldn't, considering it had cut a deal with the very same network? Slim to none? Riiiiight...
