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