Last week I posted about a Village Voice article that attacked Ashton Kutcher – for daring to stand up to men who fuel the sex trafficking industry in the United States. Since then there’s been a lot of back and forth about this article and the Twitter feud it launched.

Initially it seemed the most vocal were people eager to pile onto Ashton. Many people on Twitter thought he got his tail handed to him.

There’s a problem with listening to the people who spout off first.

There have been some great articles standing up to the Village Voice’s so-called “scientifically backed” article. People who were trashing Mr. Kutcher could do it quickly in 140 characters. The authors who spent time writing articles that showed what fools the Village Voice were took time.

Here are two excellent articles, written with a lot more thoughtfulness than what the Village Voice could muster.

Trafficked: The Village Voice Needs to Fact-Check

 An Open Letter from FTS (Free the Slaves) to The Village Voice

Remember that the Village Voice has a financial stake in this “debate,” as they host a website for “adult services,” without always knowing whether the people offering the services are, in fact, adults or doing it voluntarily. It is nice to see that in the financial arena it has already affected them, as American Airlines has pulled advertising from their website. It is good to see some businesses with a conscience.

I still have more thoughts on some of the root problems for slavery and child sexual exploitation. That will be for another post.
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