Ban Who and Why?
 

So wadda ya think? Should Pete Townsend be allowed on stage at this year's Super Bowl?

Who Are You to Ban Townshend From Super Bowl? -- NFL FanHouse

Re: Ban Who and Why?
 

Hmmm, that's a tough one. While I find the alleged acts despicable. I don't think there is enough there to ban him from performing. Now the Polanski case is more cut and dry. His connection to lewd acts is of note. Pete seems like he might be a perve but that's not enough to actually ban him. There are going to be plenty of groups willing to boycott everything from Christmas to trans fat. So Pete should be allowed to play.

Re: Ban Who and Why?
 

If he's been convicted of child molestation in the past 10 years, I'd support banning him. But the circumstances with celebrities is difficult to evaluate. Was the girl 16 and told Pete she was 18? I dunno....

My honest answer is I don't know enough to judge the situation.

Reading the link makes one think. imagine being accused and labeled a predator and you're innocent. The article said some people who may have been innocent committed suicide. Had one of them murdered someone, I would find that understandable if they were innocent

Re: Ban Who and Why?
 

What girl??? There was no girl. I have to wonder if you even read the article.

Townsend checked out a child-porn Web site in 1999. In 2003, he was arrested for suspicion of possessing indecent images of children. He cooperated with police, they confiscated 14 computers from his home and found no evidence of child porn on any of them - or anywhere else. He was cleared of that charge, but by simply visiting the site and being "cautioned" by the police, he spent five years on Britain's Sex Offenders Register.

Read the article - it's fairly well written and detailed.

I figure he did his time and served his sentence and that oughta be it. It hardly sounds like he's some big pervert child-molester. It almost sounds as though he was researching - he's got a history of being sexually abused as a child - supposedly Tommy was written loosely based upon himself -and he also wrote a 6 page article about a friend who committed suicide who'd been sexually abused as a child.

Far as I can tell there's no evidence than the one access to a child porn site in 1999- and he's done his time and paid his dues.

Sometimes I think they carry the whole "sex offender registery" way too far. Whipping it out and peeing on someone's lawn in a moment of drunken teenhood or having sex with your 17 year old girlfriend when you're only 18 yourself hardly seems like it should be cause to ruin your whole life. There have been teenaged girls arrested for sending child porn when they've texted nude pic of themselves to their boyfriends. Not smart to do, of course, but hardly enough to brand you a sexual predator for the rest of your life.

Re: Ban Who and Why?
 

I made that initial comment and THEN read the article...I meant to go back and delete. So don't wonder, I read it!

Yes I agree with your assessment. but I still don't like to make decisions or opinions on this topic. But from what the article said, sounds like he had a tough early childhood and was deeply affected by this issue. Also read about his friend that was molested as well and spurred his online research. It's very sad he had to be associated publically with this label.

Some grandmother he had. You don't often hear of boys being molested by women, but I'm sure it's more common than I think.

Re: Ban Who and Why?
 

NO i've read quite a bit about this and he didn't do anything wrong. Its more a case of the police going after a big name to draw attention. I just read last week that it may still be possible to google everything he downloaded. Whats sad is that after all these years the majority of people think that he accessed kiddy porn.
What he should be convicted of is hogging computers, 14 computers, who needs 14 computers.

Re: Ban Who and Why?
 

There was a conundrum about Gary Glitter and supposedly his song is banned, personally do not think he should be the half time attraction of the Super Bowl... there are a lot of really great entertainers out there..

The No Fun League, has lowered its standards bringing in a dude that reeks of a sense of impropriety... there are much better choices, surprised as the NFL usually does not invite controversy...

Townsend is over the hill and stagnant, there are a lot of deserving talents who continue to produce good music out there.. with that being said, not sure I have ever watched a SB half time show...