I was just a little freelancer, kind of a fly on the wall at Miami New Times during the years that their newspaper, website, and Backpage homepage were running sex ads together.
No big deal, I thought. I had already worked at the company that did Bang Bus, as a video editor. What do I care about some hoes selling ass on the internet. It's the internet.
Turns out the nefarious criminal aspects that were adding significantly to the billion or so dollars in revenue created in trafficking dollars, according to the feds, were happening the whole time I was blogging and writing for the newspaper and website.
The editor at Miami New Times, who managed the company response at the local level, painted the issue as free speech, the same tactic that federal prosecutors agree the highest level executives of Village Voice Media employed to officially frame their narrative as the company line on the matter. A tactic prosecutors have officially recognized as a form of 'brainwashing.'
Me, I wasn't brainwashed, I just hadn't investigated the website. I was busy in the streets as a writer, photographer, and video guy covering music, food, art, and sometimes news.
If I had ever gone to Backpage, I might have figured everything out a lot sooner.
From 2004 to 2012, Backpage online was directly connected to Miami New Times; after that, an official program of dissociation occurred in a strange deal between executives supposedly simultaneously upholding their alleged journalistic principles. Turns out a hundred million dollars is worth more than a plastic badge from the society of professional journalists.
The available settlement years for when Backpage online and the MIami New Times were directly connected, 2004 through 2012, are just eight of the thirteen years available for claimants to the $215 Million dollar settlement generated from federal seizure of all Backpage assets.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-department-justice-announces-compensation-process-victims-trafficked-through-backpagecom
https://www.local10.com/news/national/2025/08/04/sex-trafficking-victims-in-cases-involving-backpage-have-until-feb-2-to-file-compensation-petitions-doj/
https://hoodline.com/2025/10/backpage-coughs-up-215m-in-sex-trafficking-settlement-victims-urged-to-claim-justice-and-compensation/
Oddly enough, no Miami media have reported it other than Channel 10 and Hoodline.
Very interesting
All I know about Miami is that Miami loved some Backpage, so there are probably plenty of people here currently or at the time, 2004 - 2017, that should have the right to know about the money they could be due, but the mainstream local media sure is not going to be the one to tell them.
More info on the way
Stay tuned