The “Sex Offender” Campaign: Is the NFL Being Scammed?

This year the trouble started early. Normally the NFL and the Super Bowl sponsors get to hear gripes and snipes about half-time after the show. Maybe there was some kind of wardrobe malfunction, or maybe the band wasn’t very exciting, but considering what all could go wrong, half-time is generally a masterpiece of planning and execution that keeps the audience on the sofa and up for the second half. The show needs a solid, big-name act to carry it off, and this year’s choice for the slot was the classic hard-rock band The Who.

Right after this was announced on Thanksgiving Day, the NFL started to get letters from what was represented as child protection “groups” complaining that Pete Townshend was a “sex offender” and that he shouldn’t be allowed to play. The “groups” exchanged letters with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and then posted copies of the exchange on to CBS executives, the mayor of Miami, the governor of Florida, and to the media.

All this gives the NFL and the Super Bowl a real black eye, as it looks like they didn’t check this out up front, or that they’re not in favor of protecting America’s children--but what’s really going on here? It turns out that Townshend was given a police warning for researching child pornography for an anti-porn essay (no charges, no conviction), and Evin Daly, the guy that’s really pushing this “sex offender” campaign is registered at Associated Content, an Internet content site to get paid for articles that use his content. Also, he’s got a website funded by a South Florida foundation in his wife’s name, where she, or maybe both of them, might draw a salary from the donations. We can’t tell because the foundation’s records don’t seem to be available online.

So what if this guy is just harassing the NFL to promote himself? What if he’s just doing it so he can make money from his articles, and from donations to his wife’s foundation? Should the NFL stand for this?

References:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/187999/evin_daly.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/05/07/uk.townshend/index.html

Celebrity Abuse: Greed and “Sex Offender” Claims Take Over the Internet

You may have noticed the headlines about Pete Townshend in the two months leading up to the Super Bowl. Those words “sex offender” were printed in front of his name all over the Internet, in a bunch of newspapers, and on major television networks. The headlines were followed by lurid descriptions of what Townshend must have done to be on the U.K sex offender register, and certainly many readers must have reacted with horror. Every click on one of those headlines generated just that many more articles. The grand finale was when Child Abuse Watch sent out a post card to homes and schools around the Super Bowl stadium, and of course that card was widely published on the Internet, too, including Townshend’s picture, just in case any Miami residents wanted to attack him on the street.

If you happened to be under a rock and somehow missed all this, Pete Townshend is the lead guitarist and principal songwriter of the English rock band The Who, contracted to play the Super Bowl half-time show in February 2010. Townshend has always been known as a passionate intellectual, and apparently got into trouble with research for an anti-child pornography campaign back in the early oughties. He was investigated by the police and warned after they found nothing illegal in his possession, but because of the warning, he ended up on the U.K.’s sex offender register for five years. Also, because there were never any charges and no conviction, Townshend apologized abjectly and was presumed innocent, continuing his music career without any serious speed-bumps.

Fast-forward to 2008. The Child Abuse Watch of Palm Beach, Florida, took note that Townshend and his cohort Roger Daltrey of The Who were the first rock band nominated for the Kennedy Center Honors for their charitable contributions in the wake of 9/11. Child Abuse Watch is a website run by Evin Daly and funded by the Laura Daly Foundation, an organization in his wife’s name to collect donations for children’s causes. Daly attempted to challenge the Kennedy Center Honors, without any success and with very little press coverage.

However, when The Who were announced as the Super Bowl band on Thanksgiving of 2009, Daly was much better organized to complain. According to the articles, his and another organization tried to block Townshend’s immigration visa, tried to get him registered as a sex offender in Florida, tried to convince the NFL and the Super Bowl sponsors that Townshend should be banned. All of this hit the press in a big way, too—a much bigger campaign than the Kennedy Honors deal. As the NFL and The Who stonewalled, Daly only worked harder, and the press picked up the headlines and ran with them. We might think that Daly is dedicated and really believes in what he’s doing--except it turns out he’s registered with an Internet content provider and is paid for putting out articles on his own campaign. Every one of the headlines that comes from his content gives him a paycheck.

So now it looks like he could be harassing Townshend, the NFL and the Super Bowl sponsors purely to profit from his articles on his own campaign. Could this be a new low in tabloid journalism: using the cause of child sexual abuse for personal gain? It reflects very poorly on the Laura Daly Foundation, too, making me wonder how much of the donations go to pay the Daly’s salaries. Following the money trail is always so interesting.

References:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/187999/evin_daly.html