The Press Investigates Prostitution

I may be coming down too hard on the world of journalism lately and if that’s the case, I apologize, but it really is kind of fun to see how they present prostitution as a whole to their audience. Like Indiana Jones uncovering a secret temple thought to be only legend, the press delves into prostitution as though discovering it for the first time, sharing stunning facts and figures with their readership that we, in our unique position, can read with an arched eyebrow and a bit of a laugh.

Down in Knoxville the local press has been hard at work on a series, no less, covering aspects of prostitution in their neck of the woods. And of course it’s all valid news for them, the figures may be stunning to the locals who really don’t know how many prostitutes operate in town, how many arrests are made and so on, but when you do a three part series on a topic, you need to ensure that you actually have material to fill out an entire three part series. It seems entirely possible the folks in Knoxville did not have enough.

In our latest installment on Knoxnews.com, we learn, again, how technology and prostitution work together to make the world a more nefarious place. Why do journalists love this topic so much? We may never know. Perhaps they’re pandering to that demographic that still haven’t bought cell phones and are mildly afraid of computers, though one wonders why the article is printed online. We’ll have to assume it also went out in hard copy to the 1950’s.

The article tells us “Gadgets like pagers and cell phones as well as the Web have made it easier than ever to buy and sell sex.” Naturally we have to agree. Those of us who still have pagers leftover from when they were used in the late 80’s are probably buying and selling ass like it’s our job. Back in the day before all that technology when we had to send a singing telegram to a prostitute’s house and wait for her to reply with some kind of Morse code message life was a bitch.

Later in the article, it states “The online ads are explicit, often including nude photographs and descriptions of the sexual activities women offer, couched in acronyms and euphemisms.” One has to assume this information is being relayed to educate readers who would otherwise not know such a thing which, again, seems to indicate the readership of the paper may be entirely peopled with people who either have no computers at all, or have AOL as a service provider and may as well be trying to surf the internet on a Speak and Spell. For the rest of us, those even marginally familiar with the internet, the idea that an escort may (gasp) have nude photos is about a shocking as finding out CNN.com carries news items.

There’s a second article in the same paper and on the same website detailing some negative feedback this series on prostitution has received from readers, who don’t understand why this is “news” or why it gets front page coverage. And honestly, it’s a valid point. Is this news? Prostitutes use the internet? Didn’t everyone learn that with the Craigslist fiasco a short time ago? Cell phones and pagers? Honestly? Why not tell us drug dealers use pagers too, or that someone disguised as the milk man may be casing your house to burgle it. This isn’t really news, even with throwaway facts about how many arrests are made each year thrown in. This is trying to appeal to the seedy interests of the “respectable” readers who would never visit a prostitute, but would love to see mugshots of them and read about some BBBJCIM. Assuming that’s what will be covered in tomorrow’s article.