Not satisfied with going after Ashton Kutcher and his crusade against human trafficking The Village Voice has taken to going after CNN reporter Amber Lyon.
For those of you who may not know Amber Lyon has been instrumental in reporting on human trafficking in the United States. She is probably most famous for her ‘ambush’ interview of Craig Newmark, the Craig in craigslist. In the interview she asked Mr. Newmark about the obvious prostitution ads on craigslist to which Mr. Newmark had no answer. A lot of activists say that this was crucial into getting craigslist to shut down their adult/erotic services sections worldwide.
Now in the ultimate case of the pot calling the kettle black The Village Voice has accused Ms. Lyon of bad journalism. That’s funny coming from The Village Voice since their parent company, Village Voice Media, owns backpage.com. The craigslist clone that still has a plethora of ads where children and women are bought and sold into sexual slavery.
Once again The Village Voice claims that this is a First amendment issue which couldn’t be further from the truth. This has always been a money issue as in Village Voice Media is making money hand over fist through the prostitution ads on backpage.
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.
Backpage crime post #133
Prostitution/Human Trafficking post #719
This is an article from CNN’s Amber Lyon, she of the Craig Newmark ‘ambush’ interview. It’s a follow up to craigslist shutting down it’s adult services section. In it she talks about how the human trafficking ads have migrated to the Village Voice Meida owned backpage.
A representative from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says that only a small fraction of the human trafficking and prostitution ads get referred to them.
When asked for comment backpage had this to say…
Backpage.com told CNN that it promptly responds to law enforcement inquiries, and says the site includes links to help users notify the NCMEC if they identify potential abuses.
Now where have I heard that response before? Oh that’s right, that used to be the same response craigslist gave when asked the same question. How does that saying go? Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.
I’ll give Ms. Lyon plenty of credit. She didn’t hesitate to follow the traffic to backpage. I can only hope that she soon calls Village Voice Media out on the carpet as I have been doing before craigslist shut down adult services.
If backpage and VVM continue to act in such blatant disregard of human decency like craigslist did for so long it may just warrant a name change for the site. How does Backpage Vice sound?
Again if you want to use a family friendly classifieds site I recommend Geebo.com.
In his latest blog post craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster responds to CNN’s Amber Lyon’s alleged request for an interview.
He accuses Ms. Lyon of engaging in tabloid journalism by ambushing craigslist founder Craig Newmark with ads for prostitution on the website that bears his name. I say good on her. At least she’s out there doing real reporting instead of just regurgitating whatever the AP posts. This is was journalism is supposed to be like. How else do you expect the media to get any truth out of either one of you when both of you basically only speak through your mouthpiece Susan MacTavish Best.
And again Jimmy B is trying to deflect the true story here which is the fact that child prostitution and human trafficking is still taking place on the website that you run and Craig is the face of.
It seems they’re still not parting with that $30 Million in sex money anytime soon.
If you want to read the blog of a classifieds CEO who has a conscience I recommend Geebo.com CEO Greg Collier’s blog.
T-Shirt Winner will be announced tomorrow.
Craigslist crime post #1316
Prostitution/Human Trafficking post #596
In his latest blog post Craigslist founder Craig Newmark finally gets around to making excuses as to why he had no real answer when CNN’s Amber Lyon confronted him about human trafficking on craigslist.
He blames it on the notion that he has borderline Asperger’s Syndrome which is also called borderline Autism in some circles. so basically he’s saying that he’s a borderline borderline Autistic. That’s a bunch of crap. While he may be socially inept he is far from stupid. Anyone who would have seen the ad that Ms. Lyon presented would have known that it was for prostitution which is still an illegal activity. Any normal person that was running a classifieds site who really didn’t want prostitution on their site would have said something realistic like “My God that’s horrible. I’ll look into it right away”. Instead Craig just asks if the ad has been reported. Um, last time I checked adult services ads could not be flagged. Just checked again, nope, you can’t flag them.
He then goes and claims that he is no longer in charge of craigslist which is true. He mentions that Jim Buckmaster has been in charge for the last 10 years. Which ironically is roughly about the same time that the original erotic services section first appeared on craigslist.
Then he goes on about how he is allegedly sensitive to the plight of those being trafficked but then mentions about how socially conscious he is by supporting veterans, net neutrality and transparency in government. Yet he still does not lift a finger to do anything real about human trafficking like shutting down the adult services section.
Following his blog post is some comments from the cult of craig that basically kiss his ass. I wondered why there were no opposing comments and then I noticed the following…
Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.
That’s kind of ironic for a number of reasons. The first is that he and Jim won’t moderate craigslist yet they both moderate the comments on their blogs. The second is that for someone who supports net neutrality and transparency in government he’s not very neutral nor transparent on his blog.
I’ve posted before about how craigslist founder Craig Newmark was stunned into silence by CNN reporter Amber Lyon when she approached him with sex ads from craigslist. In case you missed it you can see the video here.
In this article from CBS News this is what a craigslist ‘spokeswoman’, probably Susan MacTavish, said in e-mail to CBS…
In an e-mailed statement to CBSNews.com, a spokeswoman wrote that the reporter “approached Craig under false pretenses for this “ambush” interview. It was a direct violation of the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics which states that a journalist should “Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information except when traditional open methods will not yield information vital to the public.”
Considering how much both Buckmaster and Newmark hem and haw when it comes to the issues of prostitution and human trafficking I would most definitely say that that traditional open methods have not yielded information.
Again I have to point out the irony since Mr. Newmark is so interested in transparency in politics yet no transparency for the website he created.
I implore you to please watch the entire video from CNN. Not only will you see that the victims of human trafficking on craigslist are real but it will also show you the boldface lies that craigslist puts out.
I used to cut Craig Newmark some slack since craigslist really isn’t his company anymore but after seeing how weaselly he was acting about the sex ads he gets no more slack from me. The fact that craigslist says that they monitor every ad for prostitution and then Newmark asks Amber Lyon if the ad had been reported just makes me sick. The hypocrisy could not be any more blatant. Not to mention that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children have only received 100 calls from craigslist about child prostitution when the amount of children that are trafficked on craigslist are many times more than that.
The other blatant lie that Newmark puts forth is that craigslist does more to curb human trafficking than any other site. That is the biggest load of crap ever. As I’ve mentioned before my friend Greg Collier runs Geebo.com and not once has an ad for human trafficking or child prostitution ever been posted on the site. As Greg likes to say it is possible to run a classifieds site without these ads and still remain profitable. I hate to keep hitting you over the head with the Geebo sledgehammer but as far as I am concerned Geebo really is the shining example of the free classifieds industry.
Please read the text of the article too to see exactly what kind of human trafficking and child prostitution are happening on craigslist.
But I want to talk about what craigslist’s mouthpiece, Susan MacTavish, had to say…
Craigslist spokeswoman Susan MacTavish told CNN in an e-mail that of all the websites that offer adult services ads, Craigslist is the leader in pushing users to report any suspected violation. She said the site cooperates fully with law enforcement, and that fewer than one ad in 10,000 meets the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s guidelines for anti-trafficking action.
MacTavish also noted that Craigslist requires anyone posting an ad to give the website a phone number, which is verified as being real. She said that because Craigslist follows the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s guidelines, the percentage of ads in its adult services section that are in fact children is “effectively zero.”
If by “effectively zero” she means a cubic ass-ton then she would be correct. Watching the craigslist higher ups in action is really like watching the propaganda arm of a failing dictatorship.
Look, if you use craigslist for whatever reason, I don’t care if it’s buying a couch or trying to find kittens a home, you are supporting human trafficking and child prostitution. The only way craigslist is going to change anything is if they are hurt in their pocketbooks, which I would guess Craig Newmark actually carries after watching him in action.
Again I urge you to please show your friends this site. Post it on Facebook or Twitter or whatever social networking site you may use. People need to know that human trafficking is going on in our very own country and is being facilitated by one of the most popular sites in the world.
Follow Trench!