Marriott hotels cut pornographic videos from rooms

Marriott Hotels recently announced that it will be phasing out and no longer be offering pay-per-view adult videos in its worldwide hotels.

The change will affect nearly 600,000 rooms in the Marriott-brand hotels, which include Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott, Renaissance Hotels, Courtyard by Marriott, as well as Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC and others.

The company said that the prevalence of phones, iPads and other devices has decreased the use and revenues from hotel-provided entertainment.

Yet others have also speculated that pulling the plug on pornography came at the request of potential 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who until a few weeks ago served on the Marriott board of directors of the company with an LDS background.

During his previous bid for the presidency, Romney had been criticized by conservative groups for not doing more to eliminate the adult entertainment options from the hotels.

However, Marriott hotel officials clarified that Romney had recused himself from such discussions.

The announcement has pleased and perhaps even surprised conservative groups who have called for such action for years.

In fact, a 2007 article in Citizen magazine, a production of CitizenLink, a Focus on the Family initiative, pointed to smaller hotel chains that had successfully eliminated pornography, yet labeled big chains like Marriott or Hilton as nearly impossible victories.

The group praised the recent decision as a move in the right direction.

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