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Salon: Letters about Pete



On line at:
http://www.salon.com/ent/letters/2003/01/22/townshend/index.html

Letters
Why did he need to know? And can you fight evil with a
credit card? Readers face off over Pete Townshend.

Pete Townshend is a writer and author as well as a
musician. As a novelist, I find his account believable
and chilling. Artists have always explored the nature
of evil in its many facets, and in this case he
apparently was trying to jog a personal demon for his
autobiography (and, to that end, far more valuable to
confront than to imagine). Let's hope this is a case
of "nabbing a big fish" to show one is doing one's
job. As Joey Sweeney notes, Townshend is better
equipped than most to weather the storm. 

-- M.E. Hirsh 

I'm a criminal defense lawyer in Southern California
who's worked on cases involving possession of child
pornography. Prosecutors will tell you that in these
cases, "where there's smoke there's fire." The fire
being, of course, molestation. It's my sincere hope
that supporters of Pete Townshend don't get burned as
more facts come to light. 

-- Scott Pactor 

Joey Sweeney is probably right that Pete Townshend is
telling the truth about why he was looking at child
porn.

Unfortunately, that has nothing to do with his guilt
under the U.K.'s outrageous laws. As someone who is
concerned about both child abuse and censorship, I am,
like most researchers, curious about just how much
child porn is really on the Net and how easy it would
be to find it. But because my work has made me so
aware of the law, I know better than to think that
having purely academic motivations for looking could
protect me. For the last nine years, whenever I've
wanted to know the answers to those questions, I've
asked people who live in countries where the law does
not prevent it to do that research for me; so I have
the numbers, but I've never looked for the pictures.
For a researcher, it's a great handicap not to be able
to do primary research, but that's the price of living
in a country where merely looking is illegal.

Pete Townshend is one of the most brilliant musicians
of our generation, but he has admitted to looking. He
has not denied that he went to paid sites where he saw
what he at least believes to have been child
pornography. According to his public statements, he
did not understand that to look was to download. 

The original child porn laws in this country included
two separate offenses, one for possession and another
for creating child pornography. Since these
pre-Internet laws presumed that to create child porn
one had to abuse a child, it's quite clear that the
latter was not about looking. 

But that law has since been reinterpreted for the
Internet, and it is presumed that since downloading
means to create a new and separate copy of an image,
one can legitimately be said to have "made" child
pornography. 

So, outrageous as this is, Peter Townshend has
unknowingly admitted to something he is certainly not
known to have done: to have actually been a child
pornographer. 

And there is no defense. Under U.K. law, there is no
legitimate reason for any private citizen to possess,
let alone make, child pornography. 

The very fact that Townshend's case has been covered
in the press means that the taint will stick to him
always. But if the Crown Prosecution Service decides
to press charges against him, there is no alternative
to convict, with the result that he will receive the
minimum sentence and will be placed on the Sexual
Offenders Register. 

Moreover, regardless of whether Townshend is telling
the truth, it should be remembered that what he did
harmed no one and that no one is protected by what is
being done to him. 

-- Avedon Carol, Feminists Against Censorship 

As one who has deeply admired Pete Townshend since the
'70s, news surrounding his alleged use of child
pornography is tough to accept. Not tough, painful. So
I appreciate Joey Sweeney's balanced and thoughtful
defense in "For Pete's Sake." 

But, ultimately, I don't think Townshend is a victim
of puritanical mass-hysteria or a morbidly
sensationalized media. As Sweeney states, there are
other ways to face and fight the evils inherent in
such an industry. But you can't battle those who
assault and exploit by providing a credit card number
and adding to their financial resources. 

Fans such as I would love to give Townshend the
benefit of a doubt. But even if investigators find no
other traces of pedophilia, he has already admitted to
a damaging lapse in judgment and ethics. 

Townshend doesn't need our opinions and judgments, or
shouldn't. But longtime fans shouldn't feel the need
to prove their loyalty by blaming the way others
combat the social ills that angered and obsessed their
hero. Others didn't open up his account. 

-- Bill Chace 

The one incomprehensible thing about all this is how
everyone seems to think, "What? Child porn is
self-explanatory! Why would anyone need to do
research?" Therefore, of course, Pete Townshend is
lying. 

This is so patently simpleminded and false it's
astounding. Anyone can murmur, "Terrible ... terrible
...," but seeing what people have actually done to the
body of a child, even hearing it described, that is
what's necessary. I haven't seen it, but I have heard
specific examples described, and no, I couldn't have
imagined someone would do that to a child. I needed
someone to have the courage to look because I don't.
Someone who doesn't get off on the pain and
degradation of children but who had the courage to
look. Because if you don't know you cannot possibly
know. It's a good thing that the degree of evil some
people are capable of is incomprehensible to most of
us. Except when we have to fight it. You can't fight
what you can't see or understand. We do need to know. 


-- Kate Eisenhauer 

My most sincere thanks to Joey Sweeney for his
article. After seeing the worldwide media try to
completely destroy Pete's reputation and entire
career, it gives me hope to see that not all
journalists resort to such biased and sensationalized
tactics. 

After seeing how CNN and major networks have handled
this, I will never again watch any television news.
Perhaps I should subscribe to Salon. If there's any
other fair or decent reporting left in the world, I've
yet to see it. 

-- Kim Ryan 

I agree with the author that Townshend at the very
least deserves the benefit of the doubt. If I remember
correctly, we live in a country where one is supposed
to be innocent until proven guilty, and yet sadly all
it takes is an accusation to destroy people's public
credibility. This is a particularly horrible
accusation as well. I can only imagine Townshend's
pain and distress as his guilt is recklessly assumed
and his innocence is at best debated. I choose to
believe in Pete. 

-- Terry Morgan 

I don't want to believe this. 

I've always had a place in my heart, and my gonads,
for Pete Townshend. He is on the top of my list of
sexiest man or woman alive. If you gave me a choice:
Pete Townshend, Ice-T, Aidan Quinn, or k.d. lang, I'd
choose Pete. What I'd do with him in that case, I have
no idea. Probably just sit in awe and say
"huffa-huffa" every once in a while, and try to come
up with something incredibly intelligent to talk
about. 

When I was my freakish teenager self, I listened to
"Quadrophenia" whenever I could, and that record spoke
to me in a way that nothing else did. In fact, every
once in a while I take it out and listen to it (20
years after I discovered the Who) and I'm still amazed
at Pete Townshend. The fact that most of the lyrics
were written by a guy with a nose that took up most of
his face (at the time) was important to me. This was a
guy who understood adolescent high jinks, and I could
feel his pain. Not only that, but he wrote things in a
way that articulated what I was feeling as a total
reject, but that I couldn't find in poetry. Here was a
rocker who knew what it felt like to be completely
rejected and who was able to write incredible songs
about it. 

In a way, the guy saved me. I realized I wasn't the
only nut case that thought these things, and that
alone was enough to keep me going from day to day
sometimes. And, frankly, Townshend has explored
sexuality in a way no rocker really has, and with such
style. "Rough Boys?" What other people, especially
men, articulate such feelings in rock 'n' roll? Pete
puts it out there, saying things in a way that no one
else ever has. I can't believe that he could be so
articulate about the minutia of sexuality and would
prey on children at the same time. 

I don't want to find myself wrong, but in this world
of naming people "alleged" as a loophole, I must feel
that Pete Townshend is not a pedophile. He seems to be
just too decent of a person. 

-- Keiran Murphy


=====
-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com
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