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ephyle 02/17/2012 3:18:00 AM
This is just lies, honestly none of it is true. Its not just main stream media and Hollywood stats that recognize this as a major societal problem, but the government and academics as well.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/slaverya21stcenturyevil/2011/10/2011109135233564570.html
http://www.breakingfree.net/resources.aspx
http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/c-prostitution-research.html
http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/pdfs/FarleyYaleLaw2006.pdf
http://www.mngirlsnotforsale.org/
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/fact_sex.pdfhttp://www.justice.gov/criminal/ceos/prostitution.html
None of these are main stream media, and all are academically credible and all provide GOOD information on sex trafficking
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Strider01 11/08/2011 11:45:00 PM
Poor, poor Village Voice. It gets accused of profiting from abuse, so it resorts to defending itself with conflict-of-interest pieces that undermine the veracity its attackers' data . . . so that we will ostensibly absolve the Voice of it's business practices! You know, no harm, no foul.
I have no doubt that the statistics used by the organizations named in previous pieces are faulty. I have no doubt that the Hollywood-charity-PR machine described is disingenuous and self-serving in its reliance on poor information. I have no doubt that the politics that produced this criticism of VVM are conservative indeed, and likely to encourage fear-mongering rather than addressing the underlying social causes of this problem, or offer true help for the victims. The Voice loves to present critical journalism of this kind, and some its writers are very good at it indeed.
However, there is such a thing as journalistic integrity. For the Voice to offer ANY pieces on this topic without addressing the obvious editorial bias at stake is likewise irresponsible, despicable, ridiculous, and reflects outlandishly poor judgment. That it thinks its readers will overlook this implies a disrespect for the intelligence of any one who can see how much VVM has to benefit (in term of its bottom line!) from editorial choices aimed at persuading its readership to consider this as a less-than-extreme problem.
Yes, there is such a thing as reactionary, dishonest fear-mongering around social issues. But the Village Voice editorship has shown us that when this happens you can always respond in as self-serving a way as possible, and thereby squander the legitimacy of any voice you have in the discourse.
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08/03/2011 8:22:00 PM
They didn't need convictions to RUIN THE McMARTIN FAMILY. Outrageous case. And these morons stoking another moral panic with bogus figures? Liars. Ashton and Demi are making the rounds of the talk shows retailing the same falsehoods. Absolute hogwash.
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08/03/2011 8:10:00 PM
Sex Trafficking/Slavery is used by many groups as a attempt to outlaw all prostitution around the world by saying that all women are victims even if they do it willing. This hurts any real victims because it labels all sex workers as victims.
This is done by the media, aid groups, NGO’s, feminists, politicians, and religious organizations that receive funds from the government, and get paid high salaries. There are very strong groups who promote that all adult women who have sex are victims even if they are willing, enjoy it and go out of there way to get it. These groups try to get the public to believe that no adult women in their right mind would ever go into the sex business unless she was forced to do so, weather she knew it or not. They say that 100% of all sex workers are trafficking victims. They do this in order to label all men as sex offenders and wipe out all consensual prostitution. Which is what their real goal is. There is almost no one who challenges or questions them about their false beliefs. Therefore, the only voices you hear are of these extreme groups. These groups want to label all men as terrible sex offenders for seeing a willing adult sex worker. No one stands up to say this is foolish, the passive public says nothing. These groups even say that all men who marry foreign women are terrible sex predators who take advange of these “helpless foreign women wives”.
These groups believe that two adults having consensual sex in private should be outlawed. Since they believe that it is impossible for a man to have sex with a woman without abusing the woman in the process.
Here is a good website about this:
www.bebopper76.wordpress.com/
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Anonymous Escort 07/14/2011 12:52:00 PM
Honestly, legalize prostitution and regulate it. It will cut down on a lot of this crap. The media needs to hype stuff like this up otherwise they would have no ratings and people won't watch their channels. It's a shame so many of the Sheeple believe so easily what they see on TV.
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Coz 07/13/2011 7:35:00 PM
Lyon sounds like she needs to get laid.
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nope 07/13/2011 12:09:00 PM
Yeah. b/c the Italian mob magically went away when Prohibition ended in this country. grow up and educate yourself.
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say what?!!? 07/13/2011 12:01:00 AM
^^^This guy must not read. Ridiculous and ignorant you are...
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07/12/2011 9:37:00 PM
lol, no way dude that is just WAY too funny.
www.total-privacy.ua.tc
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Jeff Lewis 07/12/2011 7:02:00 PM
According to the media hype There was supposed to be hundreds of thousands of under age child sex slaves kidnapped and forced to have sex with super bowl fans. At the Dallas Super Bowl 2011.
WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL OF THEM?????
WHERE ARE THE THOUSANDS OF SUPER BOWL KIDNAPPED FORCED CHILD SEX SLAVES???????
Politicians, women's groups, police and child advocates were predicting that up to 100,000 hookers would be shipped into Dallas for the Super Bowl.
It was all a big lie told by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, government officials, and various anti-prostitution groups: Traffick911, Not for Sale, Change-org, Future Not A Past, Polaris Project, Salvation Army, Women's Funding Network, and the Dallas Women’s Foundation, which are anti-prostitution groups that tell lies in order to get grant money from the government and charities to pay their high salaries, and get huge amounts of money into their organizations. As proved in the links below:
Top FBI agent in Dallas (Robert Casey Jr.) sees no evidence of expected spike in child sex trafficking:
“Among those preparations was an initiative to prevent an expected rise in sex trafficking and child prostitution surrounding the Super Bowl. But Robert Casey Jr., special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas office, said he saw no evidence that the increase would happen, nor that it did.
“In my opinion, the Super Bowl does not create a spike in those crimes,” he said. “The discussion gets very vague and general. People mixed up child prostitution with the term human trafficking, which are different things, and then there is just plain old prostitution.”
http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/super-bowl/local/20110302-top-fbi-agent-in-dallas-praises-super-bowl-security-effort-sees-no-evidence-of-expected-spike-in-child-sex-trafficking.ece
This myth of thousands or millions of underage sex slaves tries to make every sports fan a sex criminal. No matter what the sport is, or in what country it is in.
Brian McCarthy isn't happy. He's a spokesman for the NFL. Every year he's forced to hear why his customers are adulterers and child molesters. Brian McCarthy says the sport/super bowl sex slave story is a urban legend, with no truth at all.
These anti-prostitution groups lobby the government in a big way, getting Politicians to truly believe their lies.
http://sextraffickingtruths.blogspot.com/
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Josef Klus 07/12/2011 5:56:00 PM
Just perused your sex trafficking article that (via multiply repetitive graphics) equates child arrests with the numbers on the street; and which, in my opinion, is supportive of child prostitution. LA Weekly's position as a sex advocate makes sense judging from the massage and prostitution ads in the back of the paper that help supports the publication. Sad, that your newspaper needs to attack celebrities and others in this town trying to do some good. Helping moral values and the defenseless, that's what real men do. Your report, it's a shame...
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The Truth 07/12/2011 4:23:00 PM
Sex trafficking is illegal and the pentities are very severe. It is very difficult to force someone to be a sex slave, they would have to have 24 hour guards posted and be watched 365 days a year, 24 hours per day. Have the threat of violence if they refused, and have no one notice and complain to the authorities or police. They would need to hide from the general public yet still manage to see customers from the general public and not have the customers turn the traffickers in to the police. They would need to provide them with medical care, food, shelter, and have all their basic needs met. They would need to have the sex slaves put on a fake front that they enjoyed what they were doing, act flirtatious and do their job well. They would have to deal with the authorities looking for the missing women, and hide any money they may make, since it comes from illegal activity.
They must do all of this while constantly trying to prevent the sex slaves from escaping and reporting them to the police. They would need to prevent the general public from reporting them into the police. This is extremely difficult to do, which makes this activity rare. These criminals would be breaking dozens of major laws not just one. Kidnapping itself is a serious crime. There are many laws against sex trafficking, sex slavery, kidnapping, sex abuse, rape, sexual harassment etc. If someone is behind it, they will be breaking many serious laws, be in big trouble, and will go to jail for many long years.
Here are some good links:
http://bebopper76.wordpress.com/
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07/12/2011 2:43:00 PM
I paid $32.67 for a XBOX 360 and my mom got a 17 inch Toshiba laptop for $94.83 being delivered to our house tomorrow by FedEX. I will never again pay expensive retail prices at stores. I even sold a 46 inch HDTV to my boss for $650 and it only cost me $52.78 to get. Here is the website we using to get all this stuff, PennyJump.com
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Jova 07/12/2011 6:45:00 AM
You are funny, Tony O. We haven't established anything last week except that you and your pals are writing about apples and oranges. Number of arrests has nothing to do with estimated numbers of children in human trafficking or children suspected to be at risk of human trafficking. Your articles are not an eye-opener of any kind. They are average tabloid material.
Prostitution IS a form of modern-day slavery. Even though a lot of us humans may assume that many of the individuals who enter the world of sexual exploitation do it "because they like it" - that is predominantly not true. It's the low bottom of human misery, selling your sexuality for someone else's pleasure. Selling to sad, sad unfortunate people (for some reason mostly men?) who have to pay for sexual gratification... can they have healthy relationships with other humans? are they capable of sexually attracting (or satisfying?) individuals of their own age?
Who cares if the estimated numbers of trafficked children are correct or outrageously wrong. Children are being trafficked. And pedophilia is everywhere around us. And beyond being disturbing and immoral, it is also ILLEGAL. And all the media that helps it bloom should be held responsible.
Village Voice operates and is directly profiting from Backpage.com prostitution adds. How about that?
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07/11/2011 3:27:00 PM
Jane, Here's an article that illustrates bad reporting. Its from Parents Magazine that's in most doctor waiting rooms across the country. (If you're not familiar, its a cross between National Enquirer and Ladies Home Journal) If you read between the lines the numbers don't add up and just pounds away to make sensational article driving fear.
You're right about the "one being too many" idea. But we all take risks walking out the door everyday. If you're always worried about being struck by lightening you'd never leave the house.
It brings to mind some articles by "Dear Abby" the advice columnist written a few decades ago regarding Halloween Trick-or-Treating. She invented an Urban Myth that there were razor blades implanted candybars by people across the country. In a few years she had effectively put an end to a long-standing children's tradition,, based on only a couple isolated incidents.
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Briansays 07/11/2011 1:22:00 PM
cnn
ever since turner sold it
people magazine of the air
entertaininment and pop culture packaged as news
the cult of celebrity for anchors constantly repeating themselves to fill airtime
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RobE 07/11/2011 9:47:00 AM
If you are saying that the VV is changing the subject by going after Kutcher's outright bullshit you need to reread the article. A VV employee will be confident that the paper is indeed doing what it can to try to ensure that their pages aren't being used to promote child trafficking.
However, nobody can be confident that Kutcher, et al, aren't using the media to not just spread fallacious statistics as to the scale of the problem, but are also attempting to exploit it to burnish their public images.
This may be a surprise to you, but revving up hysteria does society no good. It is what got Koreans killed in Japan in the aftermath of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, 100,000 Japanese-Americans interned during WWII, caused anti-Jewish pogroms during the years of bubonic plague in mideaval Europe and in modern day America, the Wenatchee Witch Hunt and the McMartin case.
I wish the Trafficking Trendies such as yourself would get it through your skulls that people such as myself are trying to headoff any chance for hysteria to gather steam as well as preventing the misallocation of taxpayer and donor dollars. Yeah, there is a child trafficking problem out there. But it ain't nearly as bad as what those seeking to make oodles of cash off of it are leading folks to believe. That all you guys have is name calling when your bullshit is outed for what it is bespeaks of just how weak your case is.
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RobE 07/11/2011 9:36:00 AM
"Okay, read enough of your comments to be sure you either WORK for VVM and/or might engage in using prostitutes yourself. "
Swing and a miss on both counts, kiddo. I regard turning sex into a commercial transaction as gross and awkward. I also do not work for any media organ.
"You seem to hate people of faith. "
Steeeerike three!
What I hate is people who try to tell me what to do, want to make giving your girlfriend oral sex or engaging in a homosexual act a felony and condemn me as being in a pact with the devil merely because I am an atheist. Why you need to defend the extremists in your faith who get way too power freaky is beyond me. Maybe you have control issues of your own.
By the way, the Stryper, Dixie Hummingbirds, J.D. Crowe and the New Church, Clara Ward Singers and Pilgrim Travelers records, to name a few, in my record collection would seem to contradict your belief, or should I say, your faith, that I have something against Christians merely because they are acolytes of a given sect. I may be an atheist, but I know good music and musicians when I hear them, too, and I don't discriminate on the basis of religion as the evangelical nutbars do.
What this all boils down to is that your defense of Kutcher, et al, is now based on nothing but ad hominem attacks and not on any sound verifiable data. .In the debating world, that means you have lost the argument. So come back when you actually have something provable to say rather than repeating the flights of imagination of a celebrity and fifth grade level personal attacks.
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RobE 07/11/2011 9:20:00 AM
First, drunk driving is a straw man because drinking alcohol is a socially approved activity, which is going to lead to more arrests for those who are tooling around in their car above the legal blood alcohol limit. Moreover, because the socially approved activity creates such a large pool of potential drunk drivers who may not be that far from their homes after the visit to the bar, the likelihood of catching anyone violating drunk driving laws is going to be low. So essentially, you are comparing apples to wildebeests.
Secondly, you provide no alternate statistics to make your case. I have provided stats from the FBI, the Justice Department, the Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Washington Post. When you come up with verifiable stats rather than just the hyperbolic rhetoric of a celebrity who made his acting bones (no pun intended) by exploiting teenage sexuality himself (played a horny teenager on That 70's Show) then I might ponder seriously what you have to say. Until then, you are just aimlessly occupying bandwidth.
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RobE 07/11/2011 9:14:00 AM
That number was provided by the Center for Missing and Exploited Children to the Washington Post. Every year in America, there are only about 100 kidnappings by strangers, the Center says. All the others are kidnapped as part of custodial battles. So a parent has about as much chance of seeing their child kidnapped by a stranger as they do of being struck by lightning twice during the same lunchtime.
You don't want to accept that the media uses fear to hype their ratings. But they do. Wake up and join reality already in progress.
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RobE 07/11/2011 9:10:00 AM
The Traffickng Trendies, as I am now labeling the folks falling for the hysteria, also continue to ignore FBI stats whereby they have rescued only 866 kids from pimps IN THE LAST SIX YEARS. Yet, none of the Trendies are condemning that agency for being asleep at the switch or being incompetent when it comes to this issue even though the relatively small numbers the FBI has picked up could lead one to believe that they are lax in dealing with the problem.
Or the problem is nowhere near as large as the Trafficking Trendies want to believe (and why do they WANT to think that? Odd fantasy lives? Does the fear make them feel more alive? What is it?
Moreover, the Center for Missing and Exploited Children told the Washington Post that of all the kidnappings that occur in the U.S. every year, only about a hundred are by strangers. All the rest are by parents engaged in custody battles., Now unless you want to argue that the CMEC is part of the trafficking problem by posting such numbers then I will enjoy a good laugh at your expense.
The Bush Administration spent $150 million a year on interdicting human trafficking (which included adults). Their revised estimates after all that taxpayer money was expended to deal with the problem? The number of slaves imported into the U.S. every year is around 1300, not 50,000 (which was the figure being bandied about in 2001), or 100,000 or 300,000.
And the more the Trafficking Trendies ignore those numbers the more foolish they look.
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07/10/2011 10:20:00 PM
Janet, I'll agree that one child is too many, but when you start inventing statistics you lose credibility. I've worked for organizations involved with youth homelessness. A lot of street kids are involved in "survival prostitution". I didn't meet ANY who had been abducted, not that it hasn't happen. That didn't make their situations any less tragic. Their reasons for being on the street were all over the board.
Many were runaways, usually from abusive parents or foster situations. Some had been thrown out or abandoned by parents. Its a population that's hard to count and they'll do anything to stay under the radar because if they're picked they'll get thrown into a group home, end up back they came from.
Just saying that most so-called child abductions are perpetrated by parents in custody battles.
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07/10/2011 8:45:00 PM
Now, the New Times is glad to drag the Village Voice's mess into their paper when it suits their self-interest (Lacey and Phoenix journalist Jim Larkin own Village Voice Media.)
But what they won't tell you about is how they act as the evil corporate moneyswine of the Village Voice. They've lost the writers that made the Voice the icon that it was, they cut staff 60 percent and cut benefits severely enough that they just narrowly averted a strike last Thursday.
Nope. It's been news all over the blogosphere, but since it makes Lacey (rightfully) look like a bit of a dickhead, you won't see it here.
Sad.
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Jovana 07/10/2011 8:29:00 PM
You are funny, Tony O. We haven't established anything last week except that you and your pals are writing about apples and oranges. Number of arrests has nothing to do with estimated numbers of children in human trafficking or children suspected to be at risk of human trafficking. Your articles are not an eye-opener of any kind. They are average tabloid material.
Prostitution IS a form of modern-day slavery. Even though a lot of us humans may assume that many of the individuals who enter the world of sexual exploitation do it "because they like it" - that is predominantly not true. It's the low bottom of human misery, selling your sexuality for someone else's pleasure. Selling to sad, sad unfortunate people (for some reason mostly men?) who have to pay for sexual gratification... can they have healthy relationships with other humans? are they capable of sexually attracting (or satisfying?) individuals of their own age?
Who cares if the estimated numbers of trafficked children are correct or outrageously wrong. Children are being trafficked. And pedophilia is everywhere around us. And beyond being disturbing and immoral, it is also ILLEGAL. And all the media that helps it bloom should be held responsible.
Village Voice operates and is directly profiting from Backpage.com prostitution adds. How about that?
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07/10/2011 7:29:00 PM
Janet, I've posted a couple of times on this thread, and I find the whole dialogue frustrating, but in an interesting way. I basically agree with your call to action. The problem is that it's not clear where the sides of this war are to be found or where we should sign up to enlist. The whole issue is awash in ambiguity and lacking in any credible proposals for action.
Kutcher's solution - PSAs aimed at potential johns - seems dubious, since there's no evidence that it works, and if it did we would never know. But I don't know how to donate to a study of child prostitution. Do you? The Voice proposes support for shelters that serve underage prostitutes and runaways, which seems valuable but insufficient, and they don't really seem that interested in following up. Are there any shelters in NYC we should support? And the Voice seems curiously indifferent about cracking down on classified ads (such as their own) that may be marketing underage prostitution.
The Kutcher estimate of child prostitutes (100k - 300k) seems to be fraudulent and intended to shock. That matters, according to the Voice, because large unsubstantiated numbers could lead to hysteria and poorly designed remedies. I buy that. On the other hand, as you point out, a small number of arrests doesn't prove that child prostitution is a small problem. Readers can pick whichever number fits their assumptions, and based on the evidence of these comment threads, they certainly do.
.
So put it together: celebrity + harsh tabloid attack + massive ambiguity = endless flamebait. If we want to go beyond ad hominem attacks and step out of our bunkers, we need some credible data and evidence-based policies.
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07/10/2011 7:13:00 PM
What? You DON'T think they ARE cruising the malls, parks, schools and fast food restaurants NOW? Where on EARTH do you think they GET the women and kids to advertise on Backpage.com in the first place???
I GET that you're mad that there are overzealous people out there misusing skewed statistics. But can't you see that giving them an easy way to advertise the women and kids they ALREADY procured somewhere is HELPING the pimps and not the prostitutes?
Well, it IS rocket science, come to think of it.
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07/10/2011 7:04:00 PM
Okay, read enough of your comments to be sure you either WORK for VVM and/or might engage in using prostitutes yourself. You seem to hate people of faith. You seem to hate ANYONE that disagrees with you and cannot seem to stop yourself from swooping in with PERSONAL attacks that don't seem to be connected to what the poster has said.
I know, let's all drive RobE crazy and pray for him. Rob, you rant about libel yet you appear quite libelous yourself AND vicious, small minded, bigoted and mean. I feel sorry for you. And personally, I could care LESS about anyone's sex life, yours included. But kids HAVE been found being peddled on Backpage.com. Why don't you comment about THAT rather than act like you do? I repeat, I feel sorry for you. Oh, and I won't pray for you, so you can rest easy. I will pray for every 12 year old who just had sex with an adult man...anywhere in the world. ONE is too many, Rob.
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07/10/2011 6:56:00 PM
The other 1% will be SO relieved by this fact. Oh, and by the way, where did you get the 99% number YOU quote? Was it a study with irrefutable facts or what? Love to have a link to the source of your claim.
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07/10/2011 6:53:00 PM
Well, this thing won't let me edit so I'll fix my error here. 69 was nationwide, NOT in Seattle alone. Yeah, yeah, I know...this proves I'm just another lunatic trying to skew numbers.
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07/10/2011 6:36:00 PM
You mean like the Village Voice getting REALLY personal (bordering on libelous) to those who say they're not doing enough? Like their personal lambasting of Kutcher, Lyon and Kat Stoeffel of the NY Observer (that one was REALLY nasty.) According to VVM's attack of statistics, their own study of 827 is JUST as bad as the statistics (and people) they are roasting. Like I said in another place in this comments section, there are many, many more drunk driver's out there than the ones who actually get arrested. Doesn't mean drunk driving is okay because they can't pinpoint the exact number, does it? Wake up and smell what's REALLY being shoveled...money. VVM doth protest a little too much but then again, they DO have MILLION$$$ of reasons to do so.
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07/10/2011 6:28:00 PM
Here's a question for you detractors: of every drunk driving arrest, how many do YOU think are ACTUALLY out there driving drunk in any given place in the USA on any given weekend? Bet you your firstborn child that there are waaaaay more drunks out there driving than those who get caught.
Here's another number for you: 69. That's how many underage children between 12 and 17 were swept up in the FBI's latest sting on prostitution IN SEATTLE alone (read it on one of the VVM's papers, the Seattle Weekly article titled "Seattle Ranked Worst City in U.S. for Child Prostitution for Third Year in a Row" on 11/8/10.
Most adults agree, 69 is normally a great number. But hey, not so much if it's a child, if it was YOUR daughter or if YOU were one of those 69 kids. Do you think it REALLY matters if the numbers are skewed as much as that people are finally hearing "wakey, wakey, America, people ARE snatching kids off the street...CHILDREN are having sex with adults."
Is it okay for even ONE child to be forced to have sex with an adult? Come ON, get on the right side of this war. Or, better yet, put your money where your mouth is and start donating to studies to show the REAL number. If it's anything like drunk driving, it's gonna be hard to be "precisely exact" dontcha think? Wakey, wakey.
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07/10/2011 3:53:00 PM
Don't you just love twisted statistics... Thanks to the same twisted facts we have national Amber Alert system that's convinced a generation that there's a sexual perv around every corner. Never mind that 99% of so-called child abductions involve parental custody issues.
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07/10/2011 3:23:00 PM
Anyone who pumps gas at BP should want to know whether they're supporting a company that pollutes the environment. Anyone who reads the Village Voice should want to know whether they're supporting a company that facilitates child prostitution. I don't know the answer to that question, but I would like the editor to answer it candidly. If the editor instead changes the subject to the sins of CNN (a worthy subject, for sure!), he is playing games with the Voice's readership.
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RobE 07/10/2011 10:04:00 AM
Trench, engaging in libel is not how you win arguments. What I want to know, though, is why you seem to have a need to fantasize that there is a kid being raped on every street corner even though there is zero proof that is occuring?
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RobE 07/10/2011 10:02:00 AM
I heard that Demi assisted Glenn Beck in raping a child back in 1992, but nobody has yet produced any proof. But come on, that rumor had to originate from SOMEWHERE for SOME REASON, right?
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RobE 07/10/2011 10:00:00 AM
You know, British Petroleum polluted an entire coastal region of America and destroyed the livelihoods of thousands of fishermen and ancillary businesses and there was never the kind of rancor from the public about that that I have seen directed to the Village Voice about their Backpages section. I don't know if it is all the fanboys and fangirls of Ashton Kutcher or their public relations people doing this, but there are some real misplaced priorities going on and too many people are way too invested these vapid Hollywood fuckwads to be sane.
Whether the article was an elliptical way of getting at Kutcher (and why do you care about that anyway?) or not, the fact remains that a guy who exploited teenage sexuality to further his acting career i "That 70's Show" is a fellow traveler with Lyon in exploiting the child prostitution issue for their own gain. As a matter of practical public policy, you cannot act on mere hysteria, hyperbole and flights of imagination. You have to have some kind of real hard evidence that things are the way they are said to be and when that evidence is lacking then there is no cause to act.
Wake up and smell the reality you fucks.
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07/10/2011 9:53:00 AM
One woman or child being trafficked on backpage is one too many.
Here's just a few...
http://craigscrimelist.org/2011/06/26/19-year-old-girl-accused-of-being-backpage-child-pimp/
http://craigscrimelist.org/2011/06/16/couple-admits-to-backpage-child-prostitution-in-stl/
http://craigscrimelist.org/2011/06/13/dc-area-mall-cop-accused-of-being-backpage-child-pimp/
http://craigscrimelist.org/2011/06/09/alleged-backpage-child-trafficker-charged-in-kansas/
http://craigscrimelist.org/2011/06/03/jhon-accused-of-being-backpage-child-pimp/
And that was just in June.
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RobE 07/10/2011 9:52:00 AM
Yeah, because when you are accused of something heinous you should just sit there and take it silently.
By the way, I hear you're screwing your dad on a nightly basis. Now I have really good sources for this (the voices in my head), so any protestations to the contrary are just you lying and trying to cover for your incestuous ways.
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07/10/2011 9:50:00 AM
So Robe, do you like to diddle children you find on backpage or are you a Village Voice Media lackey/astroturfer or both?
Journalists are supposed to be objective. This article is nothing more than Village Voice Media protecting their cash flow.
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RobE 07/10/2011 9:49:00 AM
Okay Miss Cleo, look into your crystal ball and tell us just what the human trafficking number really is. A nation awaits with bated breath for the announcement.
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07/10/2011 9:48:00 AM
Uh...you're wrong. areas that have legalized prostitution still have problems with human trafficking.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/Corbella+Liberalized+prostitution+laws+make+life+more+dangerous+women/4952951/story.html
And if you think that legalizing prostitution would stop the trafficking of children you're sadly mistaken.
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RobE 07/10/2011 9:46:00 AM
Listen native, you have nothing more than sheer faith with which to say that. The truth is that, and the U.S. Justice Department has admitted as much on its website, that "no comprehensive study" has been done into this issue. So you are just cowboy guessing it is worse than it is because you have some weird need for it to be so. I think that says more about how your mind operates than it does about the practices of the VVM.
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RobE 07/10/2011 9:43:00 AM
Actually, you're wrong.
The fact is that if prostitution were legalized with government regulated and licensed brothels and heavy decades long sentences for both johns and whores engaging in unlicensed prostitution then men would no longer be prowling the streets for action, which would leave cops more time and money to actually find and punish those operating in human trafficking, a lot of which would dry up anyway. In fact, those traffickers would stick out more than ever and be more likely to be exposed.
The illegality of prostitution only means more money for organized crime, which then will use that money to lure more women and children into getting on the game. If you take the billions in prostitution earnings away from the Mafia, the tongs, etc, through legalized prostitution the less able they will be to traffic humans for their purposes.
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RobE 07/10/2011 9:35:00 AM
Puritanism: the haunting fear that someone somewhere may be happy." (H.L. Mencken)
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RobE 07/10/2011 9:33:00 AM
So Might Thor, since you apparently know what the true number is, how about you let us know what it is and provide a cite for that number from a credible scientific survey into the problem?
I don't think you have it. You are just another idiot falling into the Miss Cleo Fallacy trap.
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RobE 07/10/2011 9:31:00 AM
Those women are always there against their own will? Really? How do you know that? Or are you merely falling for the Miss Cleo Fallacy, seeing your crystal ball from your house things you want to.
The Bush Administration was spending $150 million a year to interdict human trafficking in the U.S. and the number they ultimately came up with after this largely wasteful effort was that only about 1300 people were being trafficked into the U.S. every year, not the 50,000 (now it is up to 300,000---or if you believe the Polaris Project, upwards of 1.5 million in the U.S. alone) that was being bandied about back in 2001.
Unfortunately, the anti-trafficking effort has been co-opted by a combination of your usual religious hustlers and celebrities seeking to create more public relations fodder for themselves. That hurts the credibility of the entire effort and innocent people can get hurt in the bargain.
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RobE 07/10/2011 9:25:00 AM
You obviously can't read or chose to be blithely ignorant of the bit in the article outlining just how the Voice turns in people it suspects of trying to use its bulletin board for underage encounters.
Listen, wearing blinders because the snit it enables you to have is no way to go through life. In fact, it's kinda neurotic. How about you take those blinders off and join reality, which is already in progress?
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07/10/2011 2:53:00 AM
The Village Voice accusing anyone of bad journalism is like the pot calling the kettle black.
The fact that The Village Voice is supporting backpage’s trafficking ads shows not only that they have zero objectivity but zero credibility as well.
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HKguy 07/09/2011 8:44:00 PM
While I completely agree with you that the Voice and Village Voice Media are being singled out for their ads in what is a "victimless crime" between two consenting adults, I do have a problem with all of the ads touting massage parlors staffed by Asian women. These places are periodically raided, and the women are there against their will. Not children, but sex slavery nonetheless — condoned, if not aided, by the Voice's placement of their ads.
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Idiot 07/09/2011 5:44:00 PM
test
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Silkroad 07/09/2011 4:43:00 PM
So I've heard. But evidence would be hard to come by.
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Silkroad 07/09/2011 4:41:00 PM
Maybe you should read article again, ricklite.
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Silkroad 07/09/2011 4:39:00 PM
The Village Voice estimates are probably closer to the truth than Ashton Kutcher's estimates. If there are 300,000 young slaves in the country, then where the fuck are they? 300K is big enough to populate a medium-sized city. I call bullshit on that. People would notice if that many teenagers were missing.
And as for V V protecting its revenue, it has EVERY RIGHT to protect itself from the slander of bogus statistics.
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Guesty 07/09/2011 4:27:00 PM
Good thing no one thinks that.
Unlike the asshat's who make a living hyping fear in America, the V V M didn't make an estimate on the number of trafficked children in America.
It used arrest data to show Ashton's claim that 100k-300k kids are being trafficked is a bunch of hooey.
Sure, they could have just focused on how Ashton took a non-peer reviewed article claiming 100k-300k kids were at risk and then dishonestly morphed it into a claim that the number represented actively being trafficked.
Or, they could have just run the quotes from the researcher stating Ashton got it wrong.
But alas, what would people like you do then?
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07/09/2011 4:11:00 PM
You could say the prostitutes do it to make themselves happy. It makes me happy to make money to be independent and able to feed my children and pay my bills
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Nope 07/09/2011 3:41:00 PM
maybe men engage in prostitution (as johns) to make themselves happy; but that is completely untrue of the actual prostitutes. They do it for monetary reasons. whether it is for drugs, designer clothing, college, or feeding their children.
I do think prostitution and many drugs should be legalized, heavily regulated, and taxed. But you are either VERY stupid or VERY naive if you think that legalization of either will makes problems disappear. Creepy men will always want underage boys or girls. Addicts will always need to resort to prostitution (and will not be able to engage in such work under legal regulations).
And don't think for a minute you aren't your own brand of "religinut"; it's just your your god is anti-religion.
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Cheshyre 07/09/2011 8:55:00 AM
Who's enabling child trafficking? It was never craigslist and it's not Village Voice. It is, in fact, Amber Lyon, those of her ilk, those who defend lying and scare tactics and everyone else hellbent on sweeping this under the rug. It's just like the people who want to make abortion illegal again so they can push it back into dark alleys and pretend they wiped it out.
Craigslist was in fact an excellent police tool for tracking sex crimes and crimes related to them. That tool is gone now only we're somehow supposed to believe that also wipes out criminal intent as well. This is the same mentailty that keeps the destructive drug war alive: of never addressing the underlying issues. True child defenders would trumpet backpage.com's efforts in bringing cases of exploitation to light that otherwise most likely would have remained in the dark.
This artice is incorrect in one aspect: this crusade is not done by well intentioned people. By their fruits ye shall know them. Like the Holy Crusades of medieval times, this is just a way for hypocrites to feel good about themselves by promoting witch burning hysteria, of feeding self-aggrandizement, creating a false air of morality ('cause the real thing is tough to do!) and - as always in America - it's about someone getting paid.
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07/08/2011 6:28:00 PM
If anyone actually believes there are only 827 child prostitutes in this country because that's how many were arrested is insane.
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Jo 07/08/2011 6:11:00 PM
The reason to call folks out on junk science designed to help secure more funding for organizations is not to minimize real trafficking, but to make sure that real trafficking is what gets addressed. Misleading research will create ineffective solutions and exacerbate the problem.
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ExpertShot 07/08/2011 5:18:00 PM
Decriminalize prostitution and drugs these problems will disappear. People engage in Prostitution and drugs to make themselves happy in 99.9% of the cases. Our constitution is written to prevent religinut yahoos in our society from using government to stop people from trying to be happy. Remember one thing when operating as a citizen and we'll be okay: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of HAPPINESS!
You people who want to stop others from being happy, GO TO HELL!
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07/08/2011 4:59:00 PM
SEX WORKERS OUTREACH PROJECT COLORADO
For more information:
www.swop-colorado.com
How many CONSENSUAL adult sex workers have chosen sex work in one form or another and feel that for them, this is a legitimate career choice?
MORE THAN YOU MIGHT THINK!
www.swop-usa.org
Sex workers rights are human rights!
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Guest23 07/08/2011 1:04:00 PM
Something I don't see considered here. Is that if sites like backpage, who do police their site and turn in any questionable posts, these people that are are prone to such behavior may not get caught or most likely would use other avenues where they might not as easily get caught. Shut down backpage annd craigslist adult sections and where do the rapists and child molesters go for victims... the public park, malls, cruising your neighborhoods... all places where it is more difficult to detect their intentions... whereas a website or even a printed source gives away a perps intentions as well as an avenue to track them down. The fact that many cry about what VVM or craigslist offer(ed) but still support those that utilize fraudulent and misleading statistics, reveals their lack of intelligence and ability to distinguish between propaganda and facts, which only adds to fanatics getting attention rather than the core issues being given the attention they deserve.sad and patheic is your idea that no matter how well anything is policed, human error always leads to something falling through the cracks and this is true of anyone, thing, org, business, govt., etc. No institution or person is perfect and simply because something falling through the cracks shouldnt always result I banning it or shutting it down but rather making sure the person or institution is aware of it, taking steps to correct itband reevaluating their procedures which it appeas VVM is doiing. In all actuality it may be better to let child molesters advertise and hire police officers to monitor all communications from those that are posting such ads and thereby keeping tabs on more pedophiles and making more arrests than if these people continued to stay hidden. Though I don't think this is the best route to go, bringing it up for the sake of argument I think is worthwhile. People should be pissed off at being manipulated by the media, politicians and such that are blatantly lying and causing panic and as in the case of satanic panic causing innocent parents to be jailed, families torn apart, ect. And what I find ultimately sad and pathetic is anyone taking any medias or persons statements as fact without doing at least some research before shooting off their mouths. No one should take any info from fox news or new times and anything inbetween without doing some fact checking of their own... that is just commensense in this day and age.
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07/07/2011 6:41:00 PM
I agree. Village Voice is just as wrong to use underaged prostitution arrest records to argue against the mass media's highly distorted figures. Village Voice knows that this is an extreme underestimate, and not even an appropriate statistic to use when trying to tally the estimated numbers of underaged prostitutes in the United States. Village Voice is just as guilty as the mass media by giving questionable facts to portray a distorted reality. They are doing so to protect their classified ads business from being attacked like CraigsList was.
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07/07/2011 4:11:00 PM
I can clearly see the point that VVM is trying to make. Government money going to groups for ad campaigns and not a hell of a lot of money going to actually try to fix the problem. These groups use misinformation to scare up some free cash. The point that VVM is making is that money would be better served going to shelter and counseling for victims.
And another point taken is that our corporate media masters suck donkey balls.
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07/07/2011 9:57:00 AM
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/06/ashton-kutcher-demi-moore-s-sex-trafficking-feud-with-the-village-voice.html
The Daily Beast pissed on your parade Village Voice. It's where I go for real news anyway.
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07/07/2011 5:53:00 AM
"I emailed Lyon, asking her to explain how she could help a source raise money while continuing to use it as a source for stories."
Interesting question. Ms. Lyon might in turn ask how Village Voice Media reporters could continue using the ACLU as a source while the company helped underwrite an ACLU immigration lawsuit and solicited readers to donate to the organization.
http://www.ocweekly.com/2010-04-29/news/aclu-sb-1070/
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JJ from L 07/07/2011 2:11:00 AM
Demi Moore child sex trafficking Ashton Kuchter goes yet again unnoticed. Is he 13 or 14? Why are so many church people dumb? Why don't they do Ghost 2? Ashton could be a twitter sex child hooker that gets killed by Bruce Willis. Hot gay tease and sex, until Mama Moore comes out trying so hard to look young that she self sex child traffics herself with a masturbation montage due to be imported into the Kenny G by Aerosmith video clip extravaganza. Please save the 4000! thousand sex traffic bazuka bazika.
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07/06/2011 10:02:00 PM
Today I learned you can find out how many people do a certain activity by counting the number of arrests for it...in a handful of cities. And ironically, I learned it from an article bemoaning misleading statistics.
Coming up next, a fascinating look at how apples are actually oranges.
Seriously, did anyone at this company even take a journalism class?
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07/06/2011 9:22:00 PM
In considering these tactics and their possible effects on American public discourse, it is important to note that historically, those who've genuinely accessed truth have never berated those who did not... Said same applies herein and indeed without exception...
http://richard-a-sands.blogspot.com/2011/07/14-propaganda-techniques-fox-news-uses.html
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Helena 07/06/2011 5:27:00 PM
Its refreshing to read great and serious journalism.. VIllage Voice is indeed *****.
*An IPad app anytime soon?
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07/06/2011 3:09:00 PM
www.stopslavery2011.com
We'd be glad to discuss this with you anytime.
- Phil Cenedella
National Association of Human Trafficking Victim Advocates
888.206.3264
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07/06/2011 4:59:00 AM
What's missing from the Village Voice Media too-loud protests is the fact that child prostitution cases were found in backpages. And of course, this is the same VVM who demand Republicans and others confront their hypocrisy. Sad. And pathetic.
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07/06/2011 2:21:00 AM
I find myself carried along by this article, and I am reminded of Nat Hentoff's powerful assaults on the day-care child abuse hysteria of the early 1980s. Yet the article's elliptical strategy seems dishonest. The target of Ortega's column is clearly not Amber Lyon, but Ashton Kutcher. It is Kutcher who alleged that the Voice's cover article attacking his child trafficking estimates really served its own interests as a marketer of prostitution ads. It is Kutcher who attacked the Voice directly by persuading American Airlines to stop advertising with it. So I'm puzzled by the elaborate indictment of a CNN reporter who seems no more than a stalking horse for Kutcher.
I want to make sure I understand what Ortega is saying. Does Backpage also screen the print ads in the back of the Voice? Is there an independent expert who believes Backpage effective in screening out child prostitutes and the johns who seek them? Can any screening system really do this? It's all very well to invoke the first amendment, but what is the threshold at which the publisher of a classified ad section becomes morally culpable for the services being advertised?
Kutcher clearly has a great deal to answer for in peddling fraudulent estimates of the scale of child trafficking in America. But Kutcher is not the only one standing in front of a skeleton-packed closet. So far as I can tell (and maybe I missed it), the Voice's management has failed to grapple with its own potential culpability in enabling child prostitution in New York City. That doesn't mean they're guilty. What it means is that they're tap-dancing around the issue in a very suspicious manner.
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mjm 07/05/2011 9:30:00 PM
Demi Moore was a former hooker...
