Essay
Making Sense of Covering Industry and the Epstein Files
From time to time, pop culture sends signals that insiders can recognize. (Note: There are spoilers if you’re not caught up.)
Kit Harington, Max Minghella, Marisa Abela star in HBO’s Industry.
Photographer: Simon Ridgway/HBOIn February 2011 two staffers at JPMorgan Chase & Co. were discussing a recent episode of Law & Order: Specials Victims Unit. The episode in question, “Flight,” dealt with the case of a fictitious wealthy defense contractor, Jordan Hayes, accused of sexually abusing a teenage girl. To the bankers, it was obvious who the show’s writers were thinking about: Jeffrey Epstein.
“I typed svu and his name and there is a gawker story ‘Law and Order [commemorates] JE taste for teen hookers’,” one wrote in an email.