This Cold-blooded Conspiracy of Remorseless Silence

Some things are just so blindingly obvious it makes you wonder why they’re not constantly in the headlines of every major paper in the nation. Happily, this hasn’t been the case for Backpage scandal, which was and remains, very much in the headlines across the country.

And yet there are elements of what many view as the “Backpage criminal conspiracy” which are just as shocking as the human trafficking and sex-for-cash scheme launched by Michael Lacey and James Larkin.

Take for instance, Tony Ortega.

If you know anything about national scandals you’ve more than likely heard the expression popularized during the Nixon-era, ‘it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up that does the damage’. This is certainly true of the Backpage saga. It is perhaps most clearly evident when you look at Tony Ortega and the conspiracy of silence with which he still obstinately persists regarding any subject even remotely connected to Backpage, human sex trafficking, or the selling of underage children to perverts online.

Tony Ortega

In fact, Tony Ortega’s silence on the matter is so deafening it’s almost impossible to ignore. Why hasn’t Tony Ortega acknowledged the spin work he did on behalf of Lacey and Larkin to push their phony claims of innocence? Why hasn’t Tony Ortega apologized to the readers of the Village Voice for the part he played in covering up the crimes its parent company was committing during his tenure as the paper’s editor? Why hasn’t Tony Ortega admitted he did nothing but lie to all of us about what was really going on from the very moment Backpage was founded?

All these questions got us here at the blog thinking about other important questions. If it is wrong — and it clearly is — for Tony Ortega to maintain his conspiratorial silence in the face of this magnitude of wrongs isn’t equally as wrong for those who truly know who Tony Ortega is and what he stands for to keep quiet and say nothing?

Tony Ortega has a lot to answer for during his time as Backpage’s de facto propaganda mouthpiece but so also do those individuals who’ve been close to Tony Ortega over the years yet refuse to speak out.

What about Tony Ortega’s past co-conspirators like Mike Rinder, Karen de la Carriere, and Jeffery Augustine? Not one of them have ever once spoken about the role Tony Ortega played in helping to prop up the Backpage sex trafficking empire!

What about all of Tony Ortega’s so-called “sources” who have worked with him over years, like Lawrence Wright, Paul Haggis, or John Sweeny? Have any of them made so much as a peep about holding Tony Ortega accountable for his actions?

What about Tony Ortega’s wives, past and present? Perhaps his current wife, Arielle Silverstein, in her capacity as an attorney might have some interesting thoughts on what it means to hinder the course of justice by refusing to speak the truth?

What is really going on here? Is it that none of these individuals have even the slightest sympathy for the women and underaged children whose lives Backpage and its vocal advocates like Tony Ortega ruined? Or is the truth even more sinister than that — that they, like Tony Ortega himself — are also complicit in this cold-blooded conspiracy of remorseless silence.