Better a Slut Than a Whore? 

Now that I have your attention (and probably the attention of a couple hundred people searching for porn on Google now), I'd like to comment on the whole Maggie Gallagher and Armstrong Williams issue in journalism. First, a brief run down on what they did:

Armstrong Williams: Was paid to advocate views that he already believed on his radio talk show by the Dept. of Education.

Maggie Gallagher: Was paid to write pamphlets for the Dept. of Health and Human Services because of the views she already has and has publicly shared.

Amazing how easy it is to sum up what they did in one sentence isn't it? Now for the straight forward viewpoint on this. The fact that they took money to say or do what they said or did is not wrong. I'm going to say that again. It's not wrong. Ethically, I think it is wrong that they did not disclose those facts to their readers/listeners. After all, it could change how people view the information they're given, despite whether or not the people actually believe what they're being paid to say. But is the fact that they were paid at all for what they would have already said/done/believed wrong? In order for this analysis to be complete, we have to add a third group:

Mainstream Media: Espouses political views and allows it to taint their stories for free.

I can't help but liken the whole debate to sex (I'm a single guy... go figure). I understand this is dangerous territory, but I'll keep going anyway because I think it's a thought provoking analogy. Prostitution is mostly illegal, while being promiscuous (or a slut, or sexually active or whatever you want to call it) is not. In reality however, what is the difference between the two? It's the exchange of money. Both groups of people are doing what they want, and presumably enjoying what they're doing... it's just one group is making some cash while they're at it. Presumably the money isn't changing anything. Granted there are issues, and this is an over-simplification of something that can be quite complicated... and maybe I shouldn't have even brought it up. But I still can't help but thinking they're similar.

Yep... bad idea to bring it up.