More fallout from NYT sex slavery article

More fallout from the New York Times Sunday magazine feature on sex trafficking and slavery. As you'll recall, blogger Daniel Radosh and Slate columnist Jack Shafer both criticized the article by Peter Landesman. Shafer followed up with articles Tuesday and Wednesday. Also on Wednesday, Slate ran a letter by Times magazine editor Gerald Marzorati defending the article. Radosh followed up at length here and briefly here. (If the # anchors at blogspot don't work, the relevant entries are on 1/25, 1/26 and 1/29.)

From an unexpected quarter, Richard Johnson at Page Six (!) derided Landesman's claim that "prostitution barely existed 12 years ago in the Soviet Union." Based on his own visit to the Soviet Union thirteen years ago, Johnson calls that "a howler that made it hard to believe anything else in the story."

On Thursday, Shafer revealed that Landesman went ballistic in response to Radosh's and Shafer's criticisms.

On Monday evening, a shaken Radosh forwarded to me an e-mail in which Landesman promised Radosh legal and professional ruin at the hands of his lawyers, Times lawyers, and in the pages of the Times itself. The e-mail, which Radosh won't release in full, said the blogger would soon regret having written his column, as would Shafer of Slate. Landesman followed the e-mail with what Radosh describes as a 20-minute angry rant on the telephone, which repeated and amplified the threats. [...]

By Wednesday afternoon, the big healing had begun—sort of—when Marzorati and Landesman e-mailed Radosh. Marzorati apologized for Landesman's e-mail and telephone threats and stated unequivocally that neither the Times nor its editors would retaliate against Radosh. Landesman apologized for the tone of his e-mail and phone call but did not withdraw his original threat to send his lawyers after Radosh.

Meanwhile, I now feel foolish for praising the piece.

 

« First times at Nerve | Main | Super Bowl commercials for penis pills »

Email:

dazereader
at gmail dot com