aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Friday, May 04, 2007

Men on madam’s list “not newsworthy”

My gut reaction is that Brian Ross got it right:

[W]hen he put together last night’s segment for “20/20,” the network’s chief investigative reporter decided against outing anyone beyond the two people who already had been identified.

“Their names won’t mean anything to our audience,” Ross said in an interview. “They just weren’t newsworthy enough.” Instead, he said, “what we really wanted to do is demonstrate the range of official Washington” involved with the escort service.

With that, ABC still got to cash in on the scandal for sweeps week. A win/win for them. So could we get them to put this into ABC policy?

ABC looked into women on Palfrey’s phone list as well, including a legal secretary at the prestigious law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, who has been placed on leave, and a lieutenant commander in the Navy. The network seems to have exercised some compassion, with Ross saying the commander would likely face court-martial if identified.

Emphasis mine. I continue to believe that the guilt, shame and hypocrisy of policy makers and law enforcement types is what’s fueling our sex offender hysteria.