Spitzer paid $750 an hour, not $5,000

It's so annoying when inaccurate figures are repeated so often that they become settled data points. A case in point: it's now widely assumed that Eliot Spitzer, the whoremongering Governor of New York, paid $4,300 or even $5,000 for an hour of an escort's time. Wrong! Spitzer did indeed pay $4,300, and he applied a pre-existing credit of some $400, according to the FBI affidavit, making for a total expense of $4,700; but $200 of that was a tip, and $1,500 was on account. So the cost of an individual session with "Kristen"—the girl Spitzer saw in February—was $3,000. Given that the Governor was entitled to four hours, that works out at a more modest $750 per hour—not quite the extravagance that has so colored Spitzer's reputation, and prompted such manufactured shock in the media.