Thank you and good night

I was watching a national morning news program and became upset by the tosh that's being reported as news, but really isn't.

This is the real news: now-former New York Governer Eliot Spitzer broke the law. He arranged for money to be sent to pay for an illegal activity. Sending money to someone isn't illegal itself unless that money will be used to pay for illegal activities, hence the scandal. It's news also that the money hired a prostitute. This isn't what I consider tosh; it must be reported.

What is not news is the identity of the prostitute, which is now being divulged in excruciating detail.

What should be news but isn't is who was running the so-called 'escort service' which employed this and several other prostitutes.

Think of it this way: Suppose I manage a service in which my employees will, for a fee, spoon-feed a client. Unfortunately, paying for spoon-feeding is illegal everywhere in the US. The governor of some state sends me money via bank transfer to pre-pay for a spoon-feeding, and then travels to my location in order to partake of the spoon-feeding. Afterward, I pay the employee who participated in the event. Who's the bigger criminal: my employee, a wage-earner (illegal or otherwise), or me, who started the business in the first place, knowing full well that paid spoon-feeding is illegal?

I argue that the news is incorrectly focusing on the lesser criminal, the prostitute. Sure, she deserves some note, because at any time she should have said, "Hey, this is illegal! I need to quit and get myself a real job!" but didn't.

Instead the news outlets should be shouting loudest about the individual who started the "escort service" in the first place. Escort services and brothels are run by people who are, in fact, nothing more than pimps, and pimping is just as illegal or even more so than prostitution.

What we are being bombarded with instead is the prostitute's history, from her aspirations of a singing career right down to old classmates from elementary school. How the hell is that news?

I'll paraphrase the news this morning: the prostitute in the middle of this scandal was a great kid, an interesting teenager, had problems with her parents and so ran away from home to become a famous singer, fell on hard times and then became a prostitute, with strong inference that if you run away to New York City but don't make it in the Big Apple, obviously you'll turn to prostitution.

Yep, that is so newsworthy! Thanks ever so much, ABCNews!

What else has been in the news this morning? Other clients of the escort service. I'm beholden to you, NYDailyNews!

Meanwhile, we still haven't been told who employed this woman and others, or with what that person might be charged, if indicted. And that, my friends, is criminal indeed.

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Side note: I also find it amusing that network news has censored itself from referring to the woman from the 'escort service' as a prostitute, instead preferring the term, 'call girl.'
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Also, because I'm so pissed off at the media for their shenanigans, I refuse to hot-link my sources. I did list them, but I won't link them. They don't deserve such attention from me.