Posted on by Amanda Brooks

media and a sex worker

There’s been a small blitz of media attention directed at me (I haven’t been updating stuff, though, I’m behind). And it’s not at all when I expected or asked for it. My relationship is over so I moved to regroup and finish Book #2. I figured on a fairly quiet existence for the next couple months. Instead, all of this hits the fan the very day that I moved (right after I unplugged my computer, apparently).

What’s amusing is a lot of people think I just published the book to capitalize on the Spitzer thing. They don’t do enough fact-checking to discover its public-release date was mid-October 2006. Less amusing is how they mangle my bio or misquote something they read about me on the Internet, written by someone else.

Last night on XBN, I discussed this with Jill (rambled, actually). These are some residual thoughts on my brief experiences with the media as a self-identified sex worker.

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Posted on by Amanda Brooks

more media lessons

In the “big deal for me” category, I was on Fox Business News live last Friday with David Asman (obviously this is an up-to-the-minute blog). And if anyone saw it, they saw my virgin TV appearance. See? I have NOT done everything before!

It wasn’t a bad experience at all. I was slated for five minutes starting at 4:40pm Eastern. I knew what they wanted to discuss and I rehearsed answers to possible questions. Well, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was on right before me. I could hear him when I got miked up. He was somewhere on the California coast holding forth on the environment (no to oil drilling off the coast of California, yes to drilling in Alaska – what an environmentalist). He talked and talked. He wouldn’t shut up. He ate into my minutes. Like he doesn’t get enough press time or something.

My segment turned out to be shared with a guy who had run a New York agency before. He was very chatty. Guys are an extremely talkative species. But maybe it was his first time too. I don’t know.

We got about 3-4 minutes. Thanks Arnie.

But I did learn some lessons.

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Posted on by Amanda Brooks

learning lessons

Well, I had a brush with media yesterday — in an uncontrolled fashion.

A writer for one of the Dallas Observer’s blogs today called and spoke to me briefly. He wanted to interview me. Sure.

Instead, he just used info from my book’s site, a Dallas Morning News article that quoted me (yes, they did briefly interview me) and mashed it together with some humor.

It’s irritating because I don’t get the chance to say what I want, how I want. Not that I put anything online I am not certain about, but there’s so much more that can be said in conversation’s give-and-take that can’t be done with a passive online posting.

And the need to score guy-humor points is irritating. Why do guys always think girls are simply set-ups for their jokes? Especially if it involves sex?

The comments following the posts really take the cake. I don’t think anyone posting there knows me (pretty safe assumption). I’m ready to re-word the old adage “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all” to “If you can’t say anything remotely intelligent, don’t say anything at all.” But then, I think the Internet would cease to be.

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Posted on by Amanda Brooks

what is authority? (expertise)

No, don’t worry, I’m not going political (not any more than I ever am). I found this story via my Google Alerts and although it really had nothing to do with the actual subject I was looking for, I found it interesting. (The age of the article shows you how long I’ve been sitting on this post.)

Why?

It’s a question I’ve often had internal debates about. Who is considered an authority? And this ties into the back-and-forth over my last post.

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