This statement immediately struck me as suspect. Or, actually, just plain wrong: I and many people I know use both "pimp out" and "whore out" figuratively all the time. If anything I think Shuster chose the wrong bit of slang there; what he wanted was "whore out", and taking that as his meaning, I truly do not see anything all that wrong with it as a description of (Shuster's opinion of) the situation. A bit too informal for the context in which it was uttered, maybe, but not objectionable.

To support my point, I did a quick google search on whore out (other research ongoing, because this is really bugging me), and among other things found a blog post, "They whored out the baby" that provides a pretty spot-on illustration: <link>

While the Spears family has done some pretty messed up things, I don't think they're planning to actually prostitute the baby--and I'd suspect anyone who interpreted that title as such of extreme willfulness.

"Indeed, it's not hard to find casual uses of pimp by mainstream journalists who hope to sound fresh and young. But pimp out, Shuster's term, has not had a similar progression. Though there are examples of pimp out from the 18th century, the expression was very rare before the 1980s, and its meaning has almost always been literal. There is no real figurative use for pimp out, which may help explain why Shuster's phrasing sounds so objectionable. The problem was not his word choice (though whore out would probably have been worse), but the idea his words expressed: that Hillary was prostituting her child."

This is what I was reacting to. In rereading, maybe I extended the author's meaning a bit beyond what was intended, but not that far. And again--I really don't consider this usage to be crude. Inappropriate for TV journalism, almost definitely, but only because it's extremely informal.

A pop-culture use no one's commented on so far is within the medical micro-cosm. Among medical students, interns, and residents, "to pimp" means that an authority figure (an attending physician, fellow, or senior resident) continuously questions an underling (med student, intern, or junior) until s/he reaches the extent of the pimpee's knowledge on the topic. Customarily, this is done in a public setting (e.g. "rounds", where multiple other people are present), and in the most exploitative instances, consists of questions that are esoteric and/or only tertially related to the situation at hand. Cf article in JAMA about "the art of pimping".

As in the traditional definition of a pimp, this activity is an expression of dominance and/or power.