This image was lost some time after publication.

Sedate national readers are so curious about Eliot Spitzer's sexy sex affair of illegal sex that the Times had to post a whole list of FAQ's about the story. Complete with answers! One of the most asinine questions is, "Why did The Times track down and identify 'Kristen,' the prostitute in the case?" Our answer would be, "Seriously?" But the Times, being a respectable news outlet, tells its curious old readers that the real answer is: because she's in the news. Well, why did they have to print a picture of her sexy sexiness, then?

Times editors said the photographs were published because they have inherent news value — readers always want to know what the people they are reading about look like. "We cropped the photograph of her in a bikini so as to meet our standards for taste, and ran it in conjunction with another photograph, where she is clothed," Ms. Rudoren said.

She added: "Part of the reason we ran both pictures was to provide as complete a portrait as possible; only showing the bikini picture might have given an overly sexy impression, for example; only using the other picture might have given a distorted sense of youthful innocence. We linked to the MySpace page so readers could get more information and listen to her song; we frequently provide links to MySpace or other sites."

Leave the good pictures to us! (And the Post!) [weak pic above via the NYT]