Race to the bottom: National Lampoon's Whorediamonds.com

As much as the Spitzer prostitution scandal wants to fade into the past, some people just can't let go.  National Lampoon Inc., a publicly held company that owns Web, TV, audio and movie properties, has launched a comedy site called WhoreDiamonds.com, a riff on the bejeweled ratings system used by Spitzer's Emperor's Club escort service (Wonkette joked about the diamonds way back in March).

But is all fair in love and whores?  The NatLamp site asks users to rate real prostitutes on a scale of 1 to 10. Some of the pictures, a rep for the site said, are sourced from real escort agencies. But the rest are mugshots of women who have been arrested for prostitution.  Mugshots are publicly available, so the site has decided to stockpile them from police websites around the nation, and construct a virtual pillory of prostitution arrestees (not convicts, mind you).  The police shots show women who are the kinds of street prostitutes who  have probably turned to the sex trade out of desperation--the signs of drug addiction, poverty, and abuse are all over their faces.

Mugshots are a matter of public record to ensure the transparency of the justice system and to protect the rights of prisoners.  It's one thing to grab a booking photo of Paris Hilton or Mel Gibson, but to try to make a snickering profit off of women who have fallen into society's lower reaches--that's the worst kind of bottom-feeding.

It's old news that National Lampoon Inc. has built a business on "whoring" out the great comedic name that Doug Kenney and co. built in the 1970s.  At this point all they're doing is killing a dead dog.

Comments

[Bud Cheeba]

Sam Elhag is a GOD.