The ‘revealed’ nature of journalism in London has often meant men and women have been put on the front lines of prostitution on the streets in order to find out a story.
It’s because there’s a branch of investigation that legitimately looks for prostitution at its intersection with common, everyday life and it’s a question of who it might come up with as a query or problem.
It’s not an everyday sort of inquiry if someone needs to find out a particular prostitute and work out who it was they slept with the night before. It involves walking around in the early hours and later at night and talking to people about sexual activity.
It’s asked for because some employers, for example, are concerned about the appearance of a small number of people at random and the distracted attitude of one of their key members of staff.
It’s not often that this has to take place, but it’s requested in a lot of different contexts and so it’s a full-time job for some people in London to have to undertake.
The nature of journalism is not to tell people yes or no and it only involves getting an answer from somebody who’s in a position to decide for everybody else.
But it’s obvious that some types of activity are nefarious and the context and consequences are understood and therefore there’s a story that needs to be uncovered.
