CNN did an article on their website and it has been up since noon EST on Thursday. Below are some written comments by people on line who read the story or watched the 3 minute clip that accompanied the article. Before I go on, try and see if you can tell what the article was about by the comments.

If you are a follower of news and of sensational coverage of big events like the Super Bowl, you can probably guess the CNN story was about strip clubs and the RNC. Stories about strip clubs in the host cities of big events are predictable because it gives the news organization permission to do a sexy story guaranteed to boost ratings without 'supposedly' looking like their doing an exploitation story. Of course they're doing stories like this for ratings because the storyline is the same. A couple of dimly lit shots of strippers on poles. Check. Creepy older guys with obviously graffed hair, clothing that was lost a decade ago and a fast talking style that indicate the guy is the owner. Check. Interview strippers in bikinis with names like 'Amber', 'Tiffany' or some other jewelry, car or exotic mix and include the quotes in the Kyron. Check. The owner has to make up an astronomically false figure about how much the women can make during the event. The number will be something in the neighborhood of $10000 a night. Check. Local officials embarrassed about the strip clubs and the business they make. Check.

With the big money, big hair and big body parts, the images that flash across the screen while the story is being told paints a not too flattering world of the stripper. After the public has watched a number of these stories, it's easy to see why the public perceptions of strippers is terrible. They give a bad name to women because they use men just to take their money. Weak men, who can't help themselves, are conned into giving money meant for children to these 'evil' women. The men are helpless, the women are cons. Judging by the comments, people don't think too highly about the women. They don't see them as mothers trying to make a living for their kids, nor do they see them as students working their way through school.

The strippers are thought of as prostitutes and drug users. The nicest thing anyone can say about strippers, in most cases, is they don't want to do honest work and they would rather do sinful work and get quick, dirty money.

While typing up this article, I heard an intro to a progressive talk radio show where people from the Fox News show The Five were talking about a woman. While they didn't come out and directly call the woman in question a ho, they called her lazy, opportunistic and directly said she had done nothing important with her life other than whine. By the tone, there was nothing in their comments that would make you think they weren't talking about strippers just like the people commenting on the CNN article.

Maybe the reason why they didn't call the subject they were talking about a slut and a ho was because Rush Limbaugh had already done it for them. Yes, that's right, the people who were on The Five were making derogatory comments about Sandra Fluke. They felt it was opportunistic that she was going to be talking at the DNC convention. Amazing how a woman college student who worked her way through law school would be described in terms by The Five women to make her sound like a stripper.

I had to search out the full clip and when I found it I was saddened. I never watched a full episode of The Five. I've heard about it but I would just see a few seconds of a clip here and there. My immersion into The Five shouldn't have been a surprise, considering what I have seen of most Fox News shows, but the Sandra Fluke segment made me incredibly angry. Sandra Fluke was a stripper to The Five panelist, a woman who would take everything from you, stomp on your heart and use anyone in her way and drain them for her own gain. In comparison to Fluke, they brought up the Chick-fil-A girl who was made famous by the guy who went through the drive thru and berated her. Here are some of the comments The Five had this to say in comparison to Rachel and Sandra Fluke:

That sentiment was echoed by most at the table and for six minutes they made sure to push their agenda on to their audience. To be demanding and trying to right a wrong as Sandra Fluke was doing, according to the people at The Five, makes her a liberal shill and political opportunist. I'm not saying Rachel isn't a good person, but her patriotism, as they described it, I would assume was less about love for God and country than it was about a jerk having a camera in her face and in the back of her mind knowing if she told the guy off she could lose her job. Fear of economic reprisal isn't patriotism Fox Five folks. In the span of about six minutes, a law grad from a prestigious school, whose only crime was to fight for what was right for all women, was reduced to a stripper in the eyes of the Fox News audience.