Polaris Project: "The Washington Post: A Paper Pimp?"
The Washington Post: A Paper Pimp? (Part One)
Last year, I spoke with Nomi Levenkron, an attorney with the Israel-based Hotline for Migrant Workers that produced a policy report on “Paper Pimps.” The report, supported by the European Union, presents research on the scope of sex trafficking in Israel and its enabling support structure, namely the advertisers of commercial sex operations, referred to as “paper pimps” for facilitating the exploitation of victims of sex trafficking. It asserts the importance of freedom of expression, but the need to balance it with values for protecting other fundamental human rights.During our conversation, I realized that I have come to know many American “paper pimps” quite well in the last seven years of work in the U.S. anti-trafficking movement. My first introduction was to one I read every day: The Washington Post.
According to the men who post their literal sexual exploits online, The Washington Post has been a primary source for them to visit Asian massage parlors, commonly known as commercially-fronted brothels in the DC area. Most recently, on March 16, one man wrote “Washington Post is posting ads again” in response to another’s inquiry on where he can go to engage in commercial sex during his upcoming trip to DC.
The advertisements may seem above suspicion to the average reader, but they illustrate how the modern-day trade in humans is not as underground of a criminal enterprise as many would suspect.
During my time at Polaris Project, a non-governmental organization combating modern-day slavery, we have worked with dozens of women from their 20’s to 50’s who have been victims of human trafficking within brothels disguised as massage parlors. Almost all of the Asian women we have worked with in the DC area have been victimized in brothels that have been advertised in The Washington Post’s Sports section.
The women are often offered legitimate jobs, but then forced into prostitution. Many are unable to leave the location and moved between brothels by transporters within the trafficking network. There have several who were threatened with gang violence, harm to family members at home, and abduction of children if they tried to leave. Some women were in debt bondage. Most had experienced some type of sexual violence or coercion from customers frequenting the brothels. All desired to escape their circumstances if they had adequate opportunities.
In February 2006, I visited two members of The Washington Post’s Advertisement Department to inform them of what was happening within these massage parlors. I asked them to reconsider advertising for these commercially-fronted brothels that were involved in regional and national sex trafficking networks.
Did these two men consider The Washington Post a “paper pimp?” Find out in Part 2 of this post next week.
See also:
Polaris Project: "The Washington Post: A Paper Pimp? (Part Two)"
In 2006, even the Ombudsman of The Washington Post, Deborah Howell, agreed that the paper should join The Los Angeles Times and its peers (The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and The Boston Globe), by not facilitating the sexual exploitation of women through these advertisements.
MSNBC Investigates Human Trafficking and Prostitution in the US; Valley Advocate Advertises "Foreign Fantasies" Where "Everything Goes"
While MSNBC is busy investigating the sex industry, the Valley Advocate is busy making money from it. The Massage/Escort ads in the 1/10/08 edition below include an advertisement of "FOREIGN FANTASIES" where "Everything Goes"...
Cincinnati: Coalition asks CityBeat to stop allowing promotion of prostitution through advertising
O Tempora, O Mores: "CityBeat's Community Values" (6/22/08)
A month ago there was a major prostitution raid in Cincinnati, southern Indiana and northern Kentucky that shut down a number of Asian massage parlors. These establishments were well advertised in CityBeat.
The owners of the parlors/brothels were all of Asian descent. It was determined by law enforcement the owners had brought young women into the country for the sole purpose of prostitution. In an effort to give the appearance of legality the owners stated they were merely receiving 100% of the money the ladies obtained for the legitimate massage and any profiting by the women was up to those women. They further admitted that was the only way the ladies were paid...
What really bothers me is what touched off this debate. One of the indicted owners of the Asian massage parlors admitted to the police that she had driven 40,000 miles this past year delivering girls to massage parlors throughout the country...
These people are making a very large amount of money by dealing in human trafficking aka slavery. If CityBeat continues to run ads promoting this type of business, they are turning a blind eye to a shameful problem.
Orlando Sentinel: "3 from Orlando Weekly's staff charged with aiding prostitution" (10/20/07)
MBI Director Bill Lutz said the unusual arrests had nothing to do with the newspaper's freedom of speech.
"I don't see a First Amendment issue here," Lutz said. "This is strictly an advertising company making money off of prostitution."
...MBI has made 80 prostitution arrests since 2003 connected to advertisers in the Weekly, the agency said...
"We've never called anyone dealing with these ads who was not providing prostitution services," [Cmdr. Paul Zambouros] said.
Pasadena Weekly: "Lives for sale"
“They’re always a point of concern,” Pasadena Police Chief Bernard Melekian told the newspaper. “We follow up on them fairly regularly. I have always been surprised that the [Pasadena] Weekly underwrites the exploitation of women to some degree.”
...“Asian Lovers: Best Young Girls in Town,” “Asian Girl: Pretty Apples,” “Grand Opening, Young Asian Cuties,” read several ads that appeared recently in the Weekly...
Ivy Suriyopaf, an attorney with the Asian-American Defense League, said that if an ad is suspicious, newspapers shouldn’t run it.
“Publications have a choice about whether to run certain ads,” said Suriyopaf. “If they have any reason to believe that businesses are conducting illicit activities, they have a social responsibility to report it to the authorities or, at the very least, not run the business’ advertisements.”
Another Victory for NOW-NYC: New York Magazine Drops Sex Ads
One would think that this would be exactly the kind of exploitation the [Village] Voice would revel in exposing. But because the Voice is free, it apparently needs the revenue brought in by, this week, 10 pages of these ads.
And so its press release yammers on about how our freedoms are "under attack by the Bush administration," and makes NOW sound like the Taliban, and finally trots out the same pathetic excuse New York once made: "If there is evidence that any advertiser in our pages engaged in...sex slavery..." Blah blah blah.
It's hard to be part of the solution, when you're part of the problem.
"Trade - A Film Brings Sex Trafficking Home"
The New Yorker: "The Countertraffickers"
Pornography Trains and Indoctrinates Prostitutes
In a study of 475 people in prostitution (including women, men, and the transgendered) from five countries (South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, USA, and Zambia)...92% stated that they wanted to escape prostitution immediately...
Prostitution looks chic, but truth is ugly (Chicago Tribune, 4/27/08)
A comprehensive 2004 mortality study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and conducted by the American Journal of Epidemiology, shows that workplace homicide rates for women working in prostitution are 51 times that of the next most dangerous occupation for women (which is working in a liquor store). The average age of death of the women studied was 34.
Prostitution: Factsheet on Human Rights Violations (explicit language)
In one study, 75% of women in escort prostitution had attempted suicide. Prostituted women comprised 15% of all completed suicides reported by hospitals...
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