Times Discovers that 'Sex Workers' Aren't Necessarily Prosties

Oct. 27 2008, Published 7:07 a.m. ET

It can be easy to forget that, though stripping and lap dancing are clearly gateway labors to the hooking game, all skanks are not hookers. Especially in the wake of a do-gooder governor admitting to spending tens of thousands of dollars on prostitutes, whores, madams, and hooker rings. Still, this New York Times correction from Saturday, in which it altered the headline of a story from "The Double Life of High-Priced Call Girls?" to "The Double Life of A High-Priced Call Girl" and admitted some major assumptions were made about two of the article's primary subjects, is disconcerting:

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The reporter who interviewed them ... never explicitly asked the women whether they traded sex for money or were prostitutes, call girls or escorts; he used the term "sex workers," a term they used themselves that describes strippers and lap dancers as well as prostitutes."
After the article was published, both women contacted The Times and said they do not perform sex for money....