Muzzled By the Feds

So much for my first amendment rights

God bless America, a country where the constitution gives us the right to speak our piece. That’s the theory. Let me tell y’all a story about how that worked for me in real life.

Once upon a time, I ran a successful advertising agency and owned a blog that generated significant revenue through sidebar advertising. I was cruising along making a very comfortable living until one day the IRS knocked on my door to tell me they’d seized 92% of my life savings. (They claimed they’d left the other 8% because they weren’t “bad people.” But that was bullshit. They just didn’t have the right to take that money, too.)

Basically, I was in a heap of trouble for underreporting my income. And they wanted to sit me down for hours to educate them on how the escort business works. Because hey! All my advertisers were hookers. And a lot were imported Asians who they figured were trafficked, though I’m quite sure not one was ever hoodwinked into the profession. They all knew why they were coming to the USA. To make the big bucks “catering to a man’s needs.”

Though I wasn’t happy about the situation, I took it like a man. I’d cheated on my tax returns and had to pay the price. There would be a long (over 5 yrs) negotiation at the end of which I’d end up paying way more than I owed and spend a year locked up.

During what felt like an endless process (the 5+years), I networked my way into a freelance writing gig for the Daily Beast, a major league A-list cyber publication which is essentially the old Newsweek magazine online. Anybody who knows anything about politics and current events is well aware of the Beast’s existence.

Having made the connection and assigned an editor, I was more or less smitten. It had been years since anything I’d written had been published in a major media outlet. And now, it appeared I’d at least have a taste of the big time once again.

After having a few pitches rejected, I hit a homer. “This is great. Now flesh it out and forward a draft,” wrote my editor about an article with the theme that while street pimps recruited women into the sex trade one at a time, television networks and big movie production companies accomplished that mission an army at a time via glamorizing the profession with the likes of the film “Pretty Woman,” and tv movies depicting the “The Mayflower Madam” story.

(I actually got this idea when one of my customers confessed that it was the Mayflower Madam movie which got her interested in being an escort.)

Shortly after receiving the good news from my Beast editor, I reported for a proffer with the DA who was prosecuting me. Two minutes into the meeting, he presented three printouts from my email account and proceeded to interrogate me about the senders. All three were harmless correspondences from people I didn’t even know. They were simply blog readers asking a question. Why the Feds cared about those three emails only they could tell you.

I wasn’t crazy about the idea that the Feds had hacked into my email account and were obviously reading some very personal stuff. But I could deal with it…until the DA offered matter-of-factly:

“Oh! And by the way…you can’t write for the Daily Beast.”

I was stunned — and indignant. As in…I get that you seized all my money. And I understand why you want to grill me about the escort business and its inner workings. But haven’t you ever heard of first amendment rights? You want to muzzle me because I’m telling the world about mega escort recruiting?

I said nothing in response to his declaration, but decided to proceed with the Daily Beast regardless of his admonition. I was that stupid and defiant.

It was a moot point as it turned out, because I never ever could get that editor on the phone again. He completely ghosted me! Do I know for sure that the Eastern District called or emailed my editor? No. Do I know in my heart that they killed off my deal with the Beast? Yes.

All’s well that ends well — more or less. After my release from federal prison, I found a different editor at the Beast and wrote several articles about my prison experience for their website.

But that’s not the point. The issue is that the US government put a muzzle on me. I was guilty until proven innocent and ordered not to write anything about the escort industry for the Daily Beast. And that doesn't strike me as congruent with the motto “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

And if you want to read the article that never ran…here it is: