Human trafficking is a hoax?

[redqueen]

http://www.indianastatesman.com/opinion/human-trafficking-is-a-hoax-1.2764186#.Tyxtt1zws0M

(snip)

However, the naysayers are alive and well—just ask the Riverfront Times, an alternative newspaper in St. Louis. Their column "The Super Bowl Prostitution Hoax: Indianapolis mobilizes for an epic battle with an urban legend," suggests that Indiana, as well as the rest of the country, sensationalizes the idea of human trafficking for publicity or "political gain."

Pete Kotz, who penned the article, stated "No one gets excited about garden-variety prostitution anymore. As a culture war wedge, it's so 1912."

Actually, prostitution is the oldest profession in the world. And, perhaps, it's earned that title because no one was excited enough about it. With each passing century, we've found new methods to ignore it or look the other way.

Soliciting sex isn't some trend like the latest automobile; it's an age-old problem that deserves all the attention we can give it. As Sergeant Jason Brentlinger of the Terre Haute police department said in our article Wednesday, "This is slavery."

...

[dionysus]

1. i don't know about the Superbowl thing... but human trafficking is most definately real.

[hobbit709]

2. Hoax no, but the yearly Superbowl tie in has a very high probability of being one.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. No, the "hoax" is the yearly publicity-flogging idea that there's somehow a Super Bowl tie-in.

The author of the opinion piece even admits as much:

even if the politicians are selling hype to Super Bowl patrons, isn't any publicity good publicity when it comes to upholding the law?

So, really, it IS about using a completely unrelated event to "raise awareness"... except, that is the exact core point of the "hoax" wording that this breathlessly outraged opinion piece is railing against.

Someone clearly wants to have it both ways.