Mixtapes for Hookers

Update on RI Prostitution (TV Edition)

Local investigative reporter Bill Rappleye posted a blog entry Monday, asking viewers whether they thought the state should ban prostitution.  Almost immediately, the capitalization-challenged journalist got responses ranging from “No wonder teens are out of control” to “I don’t even smoke or like pot and i think it should be legal” to my favorite argument: “This issue has once again caused Rhode Island to become a joke on national news stations.”

Yes, Kerri P. from Warren, you’re right.  National news stations have nothing better to do than laugh at Rhode Island.  (They laugh at us on the news, and then when they’re done laughing at us on the news they watch Family Guy and then they laugh at us some more.  Poor us!)  On Monday Rappleye was surprised by the number of pro-prostitution comments, noting that maybe people actually supported the state’s hesitation to rush a flawed bill through. (Well, he called it a “lack of action,” but whatever.)

Speaking of a lack of action, Rappleye’s story got bumped from the Friday newscast, which was supposed to incorporate some of the comments.*  Apparently people didn’t have much to say after Monday,which surprises me since people were talking about it all week.  His conclusion:”it doesn’t seem like a lot of rappers [his name for people that read his blog] are worried about the exploitation of women here.”

Ummm… Yeah.  Okay.

He goes on to include some other comments:  “Why is it not a crime behind closed doors? Commit murder behind closed doors and it is still a crime,” says one commenter, and another counters with “Given how stupid it would be for Providence to outlaw prostitution, they surely will.”  Overall, though, the comments are a lot less crazy and poorly-punctuated than they are on other posts, such as the one about dropping the word Plantations from the state’s name.  (Really, check that one out if you’re into racist insanity and unnecessary exclamation points.)

Meanwhile on the national front, State Rep Joanne Giannini, who has led the push to ban prostitution in the Ocean State, has been on TV a lot lately.  When she appeared on a local Sunday morning news program this week, one panelist told her she’s been on CNN more than Wolf Blitzer lately.

Here she is talking about the underage stripper.  Notice how, after decrying the notion of minors in strip clubs, she brings up our prostitution laws as though they’re related  This is also her method of talking about trafficking.  Someone I know (who has met Giannini on several occasions) compared her tactics to President Bush mentioning Iraq constantly after 9/11 so people wouldn’t question the invasion later.  But in this case she doesn’t actually use the word trafficking.  The Happy Endings blog has an interesting post up about why Giannini keeps calling the girl a runaway, when it seems fairly clear that she was coerced into stripping by the forty-year old man that brought her to Providence in the first place.

(PS: While I disagree with almost everything that comes out of Giannini’s mouth, I’m pretty sure that Kerri P. from Warren will be surprised once she realizes the only thing people are laughing at are our accents.)

UPDATE: Tara over at the Happy Endings blog mentions that the Rappleye story just might have possibly gotten bumped because 65% (now 66%) of respondents to to the Channel 10 survey were in favor of keeping it legal.

*I don’t even want to get into the fact that TV news is now being based around blog comments, because I’ll just get sad.

[photo of the RI State House via Flickr]

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