11th Mar 2008
Politician Uses Prostitute; World in Shock and Disbelief
From today’s NYTimes.com, on Eliot Spitzer’s “scandal”:
The news was met with disbelief and shock in Albany, a capital accustomed to scandal. Some legislative assistants said they were too stunned to speak, and lawmakers gathered around television sets in hushed offices, trying to make sense of what had happened.
“We’re at a total standstill,” said Keith L. T. Wright, a Democratic assemblyman from Harlem. “Everybody is stunned. Everybody is absolutely stunned.”
Come on! It’s not like I’m pro prostitution, but isn’t this being blown a bit out of proportion? I first saw this over breakfast in my hotel room on Fox, saying something to the effect that Spitzer was “linked to a prostitution ring.” I checked out the NY Times, and they used virtually the same language in their headline. They’ve since softened it to “Spitzer Is Linked to a Sex Ring as Client.” Ah. So by “linked to a sex/prostitution ring” you mean he used a hooker? He was a John. Not the kingpin of the bloody thing. So someone who buys a bag of weed in Washington Square Park is “linked to a drug ring”?
More to the point, is the media going to hold all politicians to this standard? Honestly, people in Albany are “stunned…absolutely stunned” that a politician used a prostitute? What about NY Times journalists? None of those hard-bitten hacks have ever phoned a call girl?
I don’t give a damn about Spitzer’s career. I thought he was a good guy, but he’s bungled his reputation already with other nonsense in the last several months in office. And yes, I think the sex trade is exploitive, yadda, yadda. And if you’re going to play with fire, you risk getting burned, so I’m not apologizing for him and saying he shouldn’t get his comeuppance. But the Victorian attitude expressed by the media on this, as if he was accused of raping a child or being found out as a serial murderer, is a bit too much. Sometimes it’s just embarrassing to be an Amerikan.
From today’s NYTimes.com, on Eliot Spitzer’s “scandal”:
The news was met with disbelief and shock in Albany, a capital accustomed to scandal. Some legislative assistants said they were too stunned to speak, and lawmakers gathered around television sets in hushed offices, trying to make sense of what had happened.
“We’re at a total standstill,” said Keith L. T. Wright, a Democratic assemblyman from Harlem. “Everybody is stunned. Everybody is absolutely stunned.”
Come on! It’s not like I’m pro prostitution, but isn’t this being blown a bit out of proportion? I first saw this over breakfast in my hotel room on Fox, saying something to the effect that Spitzer was “linked to a prostitution ring.” I checked out the NY Times, and they used virtually the same language in their headline. They’ve since softened it to “Spitzer Is Linked to a Sex Ring as Client.” Ah. So by “linked to a sex/prostitution ring” you mean he used a hooker? He was a John. Not the kingpin of the bloody thing. So someone who buys a bag of weed in Washington Square Park is “linked to a drug ring”?
More to the point, is the media going to hold all politicians to this standard? Honestly, people in Albany are “stunned…absolutely stunned” that a politician used a prostitute? What about NY Times journalists? None of those hard-bitten hacks have ever phoned a call girl?
I don’t give a damn about Spitzer’s career. I thought he was a good guy, but he’s bungled his reputation already with other nonsense in the last several months in office. And yes, I think the sex trade is exploitive, yadda, yadda. And if you’re going to play with fire, you risk getting burned, so I’m not apologizing for him and saying he shouldn’t get his comeuppance. But the Victorian attitude expressed by the media on this, as if he was accused of raping a child or being found out as a serial murderer, is a bit too much. Sometimes it’s just embarrassing to be an Amerikan.
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