Miss N.J. releases blackmail photos

“You know, they’re not that bad, but they were meant to be private. And it is making me feel very vulnerable that the entire country has to see them now because of this situation.” —Miss N.J. releases blackmail photos (MSNBC)

Amy Polumbo, the 22-year-old Miss New Jersey, says she had put the photos on a password-protected area of her Facebook profile. The photos, as described in this article, sound pretty tame compared to the kinds of paparazzi photos that routinely show up on celebrity websites, but once again we have an example of a young person who didn’t think of the consequences of her actions.

Note the way the reporter creates contrast by juxtaposing the description of a suggestive photo, snapped in what seems to be a public place (and posted onto a website), with Polumbo’s rather naive expectation of privacy:

One shows a smiling Polumbo with a man she identified as her boyfriend, his open mouth over her left breast. Polumbo is fully clothed in the photo, which appeared to be snapped at a nightclub.

“This was meant to be private,” Polumbo said.