Call Girls on Tape

Many an unprepared radio listener must have wondered one night this week if he had inadvertently tuned in the private wave length of the vice squad. "I have accounts with manufacturers." a girl was saying in a nasal, defensive tone. "The manufacturer himself calls me directly. I get in contact with two or three of my girl friends, and we discuss the terms. Usually they want a guarantee of $100--more if we give more considerations."

Across the country a score of other call girls willingly spoke their stories into the tape recorders of CBS reporters, and so did the businessmen who hired the girls. Titled The Business of Sex and punctuated by comment from Narrator Ed Murrow. the hour-long report was intended to document a cynical alliance between prostitution and business.

"We gotta use a little finesse," said one steel broker. "One summer three men I was tryin' to sell came to town. One man was quite elderly; I was afraid he'd die on me ... When I made my move I found out the two younger men were the ones that had to be impressed. I told the girls there's to be no mention of money ... to just get ga-ga over the whole thing . . . The young men's egos were at the bursting point. The deal netted me about $60,000."

Other businessmen talked of renting a boat for a weekend "fishing trip with the boys," stocking the boat with girls as well as fishbait. By Monday morning, said one fishing host of his client, "you know he'll do anything to help you."

The program added up to a good job of tabloid reporting. While the facts were scarcely new, the anonymous voices (disguised by electronic gadgets to prevent identification) made for excitement. The show was a sample of a growing form of radio journalism, used in the past on CBS's report on juvenile delinquency and on the Murphy-Galindez case. Despite its authenticity and immediacy, the trouble with such reporting is apt to be lack of evaluation. The Business of Sex raised but never attempted to answer the crucial question of whether the use of prostitutes in business is "an isolated phenomenon" or so widespread as to indicate "a general loosening of ethical conduct."

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