I call a woman whose ad shows barely concealed breasts, and "$190 cash" printed above a phone number. She is uncomfortable and guarded despite promised anonymity. "Nobody knows what I do," she said. "I mainly just dance, so I'm probably not the best person to talk to." The women seem paranoid. After all, their ads aren't breaking any laws. "I don't see that the ads in any way meet the legal definition of obscenity under Texas law," said David Montague, senior staff attorney at Tarrant County District Attorney's office. "The question becomes, what happens after you make the phone call." A report called "Underground Economy" aired in November on Marketwatch, a National Public Radio show. The report focused on business operators in illegal fields and examined their methods for drumming up business. Many such operators said they use basic marketing principles, but shun actual advertising for fear of arrest. Not so with escorts, adult massage parlors, dancers, and, yes, prostitutes. Marketplace interviewed a "high-priced Washington, D.C., call girl" named Lizzy, who served as a marketing consultant in the sex trade. Lizzy urged clients to advertise aggressively in alternative weekly papers to get the most bangs for their bucks. Finally, a Fort Worth massage therapist in the Weekly's adult entertainment section agreed to talk but did not want her name used. She said almost all of her competitors offer sex for money, but she does not -- she merely advertises in the adult section because that's where ads generate the most calls. "I only need to see a client one time, and if I get lucky I can win him over for regular massages," she said. "If I went illegitimate, I could really sell this business. I'm short, not that attractive, but it doesn't matter. Every day, money is offered to me to do sexual acts. A lot of them are very blatant -- 'Am I going to get a hand job or a blow job?' or 'Is this full service (intercourse)?' I say no, and they usually hang up. But when I put my ads in the legitimate sections, I still have the problems. Putting my ads in the adult section gives me volume of calls." Vice squad officers say most adult ads are paid for by businesses that are legitimate but not always accepted by the moral majority. "If you want to get on the phone and talk dirty to someone, you have every right to do so," said Fort Worth police Lt. Steve Baker, who oversees the vice unit. Other ads lead to behavior that exceeds legal limits. Baker's undercover officers sometimes call women listed in ads found in the Weekly and a few other local publications. The cops meet the women (or men) and determine if they are offering sex for money. Five of these meetings have occurred in the past few months, and two resulted in prostitution arrests, Baker said. Some ads even feature photographs of women who have been busted before. "You open the magazine and you think, hey, I've arrested this lady myself," he said. Publishing ads for people who provide illegal services is an ethical breach, said veteran journalist Phil Record, a newspaperman for more than 50 years and a columnist and consultant at Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He currently teaches mass communication ethics at Texas Christian University. "For people in the mainstream, that's questionable advertising," he said. "It is well known that a lot of that is just the beginning, and the girls have other stuff available for after hours and for more money. If you suspect that [illegal activity], I don't think it's ethical to run that. If it's a front for an illegal operation it would put the paper in a questionable position as far as ethics go." Fort Worth Weekly and other alternative publications don't consider themselves mainstream, and take pride in offering articles, photos, cartoons, and ads that conservative publications won't touch. But if money generated by the ads is the reason for printing them, it can be its own form of prostitution, Record suggested. "You're closing your ethical eyes, and the almighty buck is more important than your ethical standards," he said. The country's alternative weeklies generate about $500 million in annual revenues, said Richard Karpel, Association of Alternative Newsweeklies executive director. The amount spent on adult ads is not calculated by the trade group, but he estimated it could represent as much as 10 percent of the total. That's $50 million. "Some papers bring in a lot, and some papers don't even accept adult advertising," he said. "Some papers accept certain kinds of adult ads. Other papers have looser rules. It's all across the board." In defending the ads, publishers of alternative weeklies argue both profits and free speech. Some believe that accepting adult ads can actually hurt profits, because mainstream advertisers shy away from flesh-on-parade publications. Ditch the adult ads, and mainstream advertisers will scurry to fill their place, the theory goes. This year's AAN national convention will offer a seminar on that topic. "These ads do not remain in the book for financial purposes; we are truly living up to the nature of the alternative press," said Dallas Observer publisher Alison Draper, adding that she personally dislikes such ads. Freedom of the press, like free speech, is a protected right, but with freedom comes responsibility, said Aly Colón, director of diversity programs and ethics faculty at the Poynter Institute, the Florida journalism education group that owns the St. Petersburg Times. "As a news publication, you need to have certain principles on which you base the coverage you include in your publication," he said. "Those principles should guide you both in the coverage you do and in what you actually publish, both from a news perspective and an ad perspective. You can have ways of addressing each of those areas separately, but the underlying principle, if you plan to be consistent, should be the same. If it would be deemed in poor taste to write a leering article with pictures of nude women, how would you judge an ad with leering copy and nude women? How would you justify it?" |
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