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Gasp! A Balanced Piece of Press!



Since I'm throwing "Bravos!" around, bravo to CBSNews.com for this very
balanced summary of the Observer interview.  Finally, a press story that goes
out of its way to stress that Pete downloaded nothing.

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Pete Townshend Considered Suicide

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/29/entertainment/main590604.shtml

LONDON, Dec. 29, 2003

(AP) Rock guitarist Pete Townshend considered suicide after his arrest on suspicion
of possessing child pornography, a newspaper quoted him as saying.

"If I had had a gun, I would have shot myself," The Who co-founder said in The Obser-
ver Sunday newspaper. "And if I had shot myself, it would have been ... awful because
it would have confirmed what everybody thought."

He reportedly said that low point came after his arrest in January as part of Operation
Ore, an FBI-led crackdown on Internet child pornography.

Townshend was cleared in May of possessing pornographic images of children but
still was placed on a national register of sex offenders. That registration was part of a
formal police caution he received for accessing a Web site containing images of child
abuse.

London's Metropolitan Police said after a four-month investigation that Townshend
"was not in possession of any downloaded child abuse images" but had accessed a
site containing such images in 1999.

The 58-year-old musician acknowledged using his credit card to enter a Web site ad-
vertising child pornography but said he was doing research for his autobiography and a
campaign against child pornography. He denies being a pedophile.

The Observer quoted him as reiterating that denial, although he acknowledged that his
actions were "wrong" and "stupid."

"The legal position is clear, my experience is clear, my culpability is clear, but my in-
nocence is absolute," he reportedly said. "I'm certain of my own standing before God,
which is the level at which I'll be judged."

He said he looked forward to touring again, but added that "the whole thing has
changed my standing in society substantially."

)MMIII, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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- SCHRADE in Akron

The Council For Secular Humanism
http://www.secularhumanism.org/