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VIEWPOINT: Group uses flawed tactic in LodgeNet battle |
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By Yvonne D. Hawkins
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Tuesday, 14 August 2007 |
Aristotle was right.
If you want to win an argument, then you must display goodwill.
I first heard that principle when I joined my junior high school’s debate team. As part of our team’s preparation, we studied ideas based on the Greek philosopher’s three books known collectively as “The Rhetoric.”
That’s when I really began to understand how essential it is to respect an opponent.
After I opened my morning newspaper recently, I felt like sending a copy of “The Rhetoric” to leaders of Citizens for Community Values.
The organization bought a full-page advertisement in the Argus Leader as part of its campaign to persuade executives and directors with LodgeNet Entertainment Corp. to stop the company’s practice of distributing pornographic movies to hotel clients.
It’s true that LodgeNet distributes movies that some of us might consider, ur, questionable.
It’s also true that the company’s top-requested movies from hotel guests generally are the kind of films that most of us watch at neighborhood theaters.
The issue, in the CCV’s view, is whether the adult movies that Lodge-Net distributes are obscene. However, if they aren’t, then LodgeNet’s free to distribute them.
There’s plenty of room to debate whether that’s a good choice by Lodge-Net because certain actions might not be prudent even if they’re permissible.
However, if the CCV, an Ohio-based organization, wants to garner support for its agenda from local residents and businesses, then it needs to show a little more goodwill.
Let’s start with its ad content.
The group’s ad featured a large photo of a desolate piece of land with a road seemingly going nowhere.
On the side of the road, there’s a sign that says: Welcome to SiouXXX Falls, A Town Disgraced by LodgeNet Porn.
Silly me, I actually tried for a split second to picture in my mind where this photo was shot. Even the outskirts of Sioux Falls don’t look like that.
David Miller, CCV vice president for public policy, said the photo and ad weren’t meant to disparage Sioux Falls. The ad was an open letter directed to LodgeNet executives, not Sioux Falls residents, he said.
The ad also included a sentence at the bottom of its full page of text saying that the CCV doesn’t want
LodgeNet completely out of the entertainment business.
And Miller pointed out that the ad graciously says his group believes that Sioux Falls residents don’t want the label “A Town Disgraced by LodgeNet Porn.”
Gee, thanks.
When I mentioned that Sioux Falls is a city that’s more than LodgeNet, Miller agreed.
And that brings me back to the principles of persuasion.
Even though the CCV is targeting LodgeNet executives, Miller says he hopes that Sioux Falls residents would be influenced to push for an investigation into whether some of the movies LodgeNet distributes are obscene.
Aristotle says that to persuade a person, one must show practical intelligence, virtuous character and goodwill.
Even if the first two elements are present but the third is missing, then it’s like carrying water in a bucket that has a hole in it. Something’s going to leak.
In the words of another great philosopher – my mom – it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. |