“You rescue girls from brothels?” Meg Ryan asks a Cambodian activist in Half the Sky, a documentary based on the work of Nicholas Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn in 10 developing countries. This idea of “rescue” is at the heart of a growing critique of Kristofs journalism and activism from a variety of journalists and activists, and in some cases from sex workers themselves. And the anti-Kristof backlash raises a bigger question: is it even possible for American journalists to ethically tell the stories of women in the developing world?