Blowback on the ten hottest female sex offenders in Texas

By Mona Goldwater, Ethics and Mores Editor





The "10 hottest women on the Texas' sex offender list" has, not surprisingly kicked up a firestorm.  Did they really think it wouldn't?  The Houston Press featured the article on their blog.  The controversy was probably exacerbated when the blog post's author admitted that he was looking for eyes and mouseclicks. 

click to enlarge the ten "hottest"

Richard Connelly the author, tried to explain: "Last week I spoke to two veteran child-porn prosecutors for a Q&A on how they do their jobs -- how they deal with looking at such horrific evidence -- and how parents can protect their children from being exploited."

"They talked of how child predators don't fit any category -- the people they prosecuted included successful lawyers and doctors, as well as unemployed losers."

"It triggered an idea about how people have a preconceived notion of what dangerous predators "always" look like -- slovenly fat guys in T-shirts asking kids if they wanted a ride -- and how best to shake that notion up."

"I also wrote an over-the-top intro, trusting that the outrageous headline (Anything putting "hottest" near "sex offenders," I thought, would clearly show over-the-topness)."

Well, it misfired.  But Connelly appears to have kept his job, and they didn't even remove the offending blog post, although they did offer up the above comments and a sort-of-apology.

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