Dismal ratings. Viewer outrage. The combination of the two led NBC to cancel a series that glorified the sexual exploitation of women and the Playboy philosophy that women are to be used, abused and then discarded. Yes, The Playboy Club has been canceled.
“It is great news that The Playboy Club is canceled after just three episodes. Clearly viewers are not interested in supporting the brand that normalized pornography and caused immeasurable harm to women, children and to the men who became addicted to porn.” says Dawn Hawkins, executive director of Morality in Media, organizer of the site www.ClosetheClubOnNBC.com.
According to Hawkins, key NBC advertisers left the show after receiving more than 20,000 emails through Morality in Media’s site www.CloseTheClubOnNBC.com.
“The efforts of Morality in Media, Parent’s Television Council, Gloria Steinem and many others lead to the public outrage and ultimate cancellation of the show,” says Hawkins.
Playboy, once equated with ‘soft-core’ pornography, distributes hardcore pornography on pay-TV channels and the Internet. Distribution of hardcore pornography can be prosecuted under federal and state obscenity laws, according to Patrick Trueman, Morality in Media president and a former chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.
Now, Morality in Media is gearing up for its next battle: “We’ll use the same public pressure that closed the club to get the attention of the U.S. Justice Department which has not prosecuted one case against pornographers during the current administration,” says Trueman.
