Ok, So Tampa Bay Pride....Part 2.....

By ANTHONY CORMIER and MICHAEL A. SCARCELLA Sarasota Herald-Tribune
The Tampa Tribune
Published: March 29, 2008
MANATEE COUNTY - They spoke for five minutes, at best.
But those quick conversations between an undercover policewoman and two men in their 90s catapulted the men into a global spotlight and sparked an Internet frenzy that shows how, in today's world, a minor incident can quickly become an international sensation.
The recent arrests of two 93-year-old men in Manatee County on solicitation of prostitution charges has steamrolled across the Web in a matter of days.
The issue made it into European papers, hit the top of the Drudge Report, became fodder for late-night comedians including David Letterman and spread like wildfire among bloggers. The Herald-Tribune's Web site had 40,000 hits on the story in one day.
What started as a typical police case - with, of course, atypical suspects - revealed the power of the Web and shows that the way the world gets its news has changed.
Prosecutors eventually dropped the charge against one of the suspects, Carlos Underhill, who was arrested on a similar charge when he was 75. But authorities are taking the other suspect, Frank Milio, to trial on the charges.
Milio's attorney, however, insists the undercover prostitution sting was a case of police entrapment.
Messages left for Underhill and Milio were not responded to.
Outside the criminal justice system, the story is more about how the Internet has shrunk the world, enabling news from Manatee County to spin its way to Europe in a mouse click.
And, as often happens, it can likely be traced to Matt Drudge, the powerful Internet gossip whose site is one of the most read in the world.
The Drudge Report picked up the Herald-Tribune story on the charges and ran it on the top of its home page. The next day, the story had been disseminated across wire services, other newspapers and broadcast outlets - from USA Today to Fox News.
Shortly after it appeared on Drudge, a reporter from a New York tabloid called the Manatee County Sheriff's Office for details. "It's obvious when you have something like this that people are going to find it funny," said Dave Bristow, a department spokesman.
Meanwhile, two late-night hosts, Jay Leno and Letterman, were chiming in. "This is what happens when Medicare covers Viagra," Letterman cracked.
These days, said David Carlson, a journalism professor at the University of Florida, readers are hungrier than ever for "news of the weird."
"People have always been interested in the 'Man Bites Dog' stories," Carlson said. "And there is no question that people have prurient interests. In this case, it's certainly bizarre enough to get people talking."