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Let's be clear: Today's takedown has nothing to do with stopping prostitution. It's about bringing down the governor of New York. There are three things you need to know before tonight's cocktail-party chatter. Most people will get them wrong — and that's the way the media wants it.

  • "Christin" won't be found online. Don't bother trolling the Internet Archive for her photo. The way high-end agencies work is the pics on the website aren't the actual girls. Potential clients go in person to a madam after they make a deposit towards the first appointment. They then get to look at a photo book and decide who to hire from there.
  • There's no such thing as a "$5,500/hour escort." Agency-based prostitutes who command these rates don't turn hourly tricks. These are evening, overnight, and weekend appointments. Spitzer wasn't just "paying her to leave" after a blowjob, he was time-sharing a mistress.
  • Could it happen to YOU? No. You'll never see a headline, "Prostitution Bust Nets 8 Alpha Geeks." Federal prosecutors, who almost never make prostitution arrests, are using the Emperors Club to take down high-profile clients, just as Spitzer once did himself. Busting a bunch of techies gets nobody nothing. They'd sooner nab the newspaper editors and TV producers who'll rush this story out today before going to their own appointments. If Jimmy Wales had hired, he'd have saved himself a lot of bad publicity.