To the people I referrred to in Outrage over Pete Townsend, who are busily debating the story over in the discussion area of my Pete Townsend reviews Kurt Cobain’s diaries entry, I feel that I should pass along this report from the Smoking Gun, which lends at least some credence to Townsend’s vapid-sounding defense that he was conducting ill-advised research.
But what of the other viewpoint, that he is merely one of the many people on the Internet simultaneously drawn to and repelled by images of transgressive or otherwise taboo sex and/or violence?
Because he condemns something does not necessarily mean that he is not at the same time a consumer of it. We have Marianne Faithfull’s word that he’s not a hypocrite but what is that worth?
Will Pete be the O.J. of the pedophile set?