"As a high profile writer he can have access to and can talk to police, lawyers, and any other professionals working in this field to get all the information he needs if he wants to make this a topic for his book. he doesn't need to go searching for it himself."
What about low profile writers? How do they research the topics they're writing about?
FWIW I have never researched child porn and don't want to write about it in any way - but, like I said upthread, I've certainly researched and written about people doing other illegal things (or even legal things, such as military personnel dealing with bombs).
I'm not John Grisham, who if he wants to write about a pilot can ring up the Air Force and ask to come have a look round and a discussion with some experts. If I want to write about a pilot, I go lurk on a flying forum and see what they talk about and how they word it.
So if I wanted to write about a fictional legal case concerning, say, taking down a child porn internet ring...where and how would I research acceptably online? Or are only famous writers allowed to write novels about contentious subjects?
I'm not excusing what he's said. I'm just saying that there are reasons for people to research unpleasant topics beyond personal enjoyment of whatever the topic is. And it does make me uncomfortable that people might judge me based on my browsing history on the assumption that if I've Googled it I must want to do it.