Last fall, the New York Times magazine published a story by Emily Baumgaertner Nunn, a national health reporter, about the commercial sexual exploitation of children on a fifty-block stretch of Figueroa Street in South Los Angeles known as the Blade. To report the piece, Baumgaertner Nunn embedded with vice investigators for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) as they carried out undercover operations. She also interviewed dozens of people—trafficking survivors, aid workers, experts, officials. Accompanying the text were photographs by Katy Grannan, an art photographer who contributes frequently to the Times, depicting Black and brown women and girls, baring skin, in platform heels, most in police custody, some in handcuffs. The headline asked, “Can Anyone Rescue the Trafficked Girls of LA’s Figueroa Street?”
The piece quickly received praise from many journalists. This spring, it was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing. But Alia Azariah, a survivor advocate, said that, when a girl depicted in the story came across a post promoting it, she reached out to her, saying she was scared that she would be identifiable—including to the people who trafficked her. And as it turned out, this was not the only negative response the piece received. Advocacy organizations contacted the Times privately over several weeks post-publication, expressing concern about the reporting and photographs, wanting to know how consent was obtained, and asking Baumgaertner Nunn to reconsider elements of the story.
Five weeks after publication, no changes had been made. Twenty-two organizations that work on survivor and foster care sent a joint letter to Jessica Dimson, the director of photography at the Times magazine, citing the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics. The groups focused on the pictures, which, they wrote, “do real and lasting damage” and should be removed from the internet. Though the subjects were generally shot from behind or in profile, they could very well be recognizable to anyone familiar with the Blade. “Using identifiable images of young people who are being detained, pursued, or exploited, particularly when minors may be involved, is not responsible journalism or simply news reporting in the public interest,” the letter read. “It is re-exploitation.” The captions on the images were concerning, too—referring to “a stable of a dozen girls,” echoing the dehumanizing language of traffickers.
