Northeastern can’t paper over sex ads in Phoenix, top attorney says

By Joe Dwinell
BostHerald
May 03, 2019

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The Northeastern University campus May 3, 2019 in BOSTON, Massachusetts. Photo by Chris Christo

One of the city’s leading crusaders against sexual abuse in the Catholic church is calling on Northeastern University to explain to human-trafficking victims why it hosts the archives of the now-defunct Boston Phoenix — an alternative weekly fueled by prostitution ads.

The university addresses those ads by stating on the Snell Library website they were for “romantic mates,” and in a statement sent Saturday to the Herald saying readers need to “learn from and not repeat our mistakes.”

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, widely hailed nationally for exposing rampant sexual abuse in the church, told the Herald Northeastern needs to address the matter further.

“Given society’s attitude in regards to sexual trafficking, Northeastern University has a responsibility to more completely explain why it’s hosting those archives,” Garabedian said. “It’s painful to many victims of sex trafficking, sexual abuse and to society in general.”

Some of the old ads in the Phoenix, according to archived photos, included: “Romantic red head” looking to take a man “to heaven and back … live life at 100 mph,” and “blonde girl with big personality.” Others were more to the point.

In a statement, the dean of the Snell Library, professor Dan Cohen, did not address calls for a forum about why the college hosts the controversial archives.

“Libraries and archives retain the past so that we can strive to learn from and not repeat our mistakes,” he said.

“This often means preserving materials that are troubling and offensive. It is only through honestly studying and understanding the past — including our best and worst selves — that societies can ensure human progress.”

Cohen did not address the shadowy business model the Phoenix leaned on to keep it afloat.

State Sen. Mark Montigny, a New Bedford Democrat and the original author of a 2011 law making the trafficking of humans for sex or forced labor a crime in Massachusetts, said Saturday more needs to happen.

“Northeastern needs to be realistic and come right out and say the Phoenix was selling sleaze,” Montigny said. “Just saying it was ‘romantic dates’ has nothing to do with reality.

“I can’t figure out why they don’t want to be realistic?” he added. “Just pick up the phone. I’ll give them contacts for people who will share the truth about human trafficking.”

Montigny added some of the old Phoenix ads peddled prostitution for pimps selling young girls. “In too many cases it was a young minor,” he added.

Since 2015, Northeastern’s Snell Library has showcased an archive to highlight the work of Phoenix reporters who tackled clergy sex abuse, AIDS and other issues of their day, yet remained silent about the sex ads that helped pay their salaries, author Casey Sherman wrote in a Herald column Friday.