Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Sexploitation and Craig's List

By John Ballard



This issue via Change.org deserves the widest possible exposure. Twitter and Facebook are great mediums but only a blog can hook readers with snips like this from today's email.




Until last week, Craigslist was the largest and most accessible marketplace for buyers and sellers of sex trafficking victims in the world. It not only made sex trafficking relatively easy, but because of its welcoming brand and 50 million users, Craigslist helped normalize the practice and gave it a safe space on the web. Those wanting to purchase underage sex didn't have to hide - they could browse Craigslist at work and make arrangements to rape girls after hours and on weekends. And many did.


The company has defended its adult services ads as an issue of free speech and claimed that few of the ads were for trafficking victims. But that's been a difficult position for the company to maintain in the face of public letters from girls formerly sold on Craigslist, including one from a trafficking survivor whose pimp forced her to advertise for her own statutory rape on Craigslist at age 11.




Check out the site.

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