Last week, Gawker.com broke the "story" that married Congressman Christopher Lee had apparently been soliciting contact with woman from the Craigslist personals section, and had even sent her a photo of himself shirtless. Later I read that the woman Congressman Lee had been flirting with had actually been the one to contact Gawker when she realized that he had lied about being single. The scandal forced Lee to resign.
What do you make of this kind of news-making? Ok, so the guy entertained the thought of cheating. Isn't that between him and his wife? He's not the President, he didn't do anything illegal, and I'm not entirely sure that something like this should have to ruin his career? Is it morally ok for Gawker to jump on an awkward shirtless photo and make a scandal out of nothing? How should the traditional media respond to this "tabloidization" of politics? Thoughts?
When Mayor Giuliani was thinking of running for president, I heard that one of the reasons that he would be a weak candidate was that he was divorced or that he had a mistress or something like that. In my opinion, whether or not a politician is married and/or has ever cheated on their spouse shouldn’t affect how they stand as a politician.
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way with the Clinton scandal. I understand that it was bad that he lied about it, seeing as that’s illegal. But aside for that part, I don’t think it’s such a big deal for the public that he cheated on his wife. I think it’s a big deal if you’re Hillary or the President’s kids or his parents, but for a voter, it shouldn’t make a difference. He wasn’t voted into the White House to display the proper way a married person should behave; presumably Americans that voted for him did so because they felt he would be able to lead the country effectively.
So I think it’s OK for a news agency to print the story because it seems that’s what Americans want to read about unfortunately- I just don’t think Americans should then decide whether or not to vote for a person or not based on these elements. Nobody’s perfect, and if a person’s only flaw is something that is perfectly legal, I would vote for him.
That being said, I wouldn’t set him up with my sister.
I strongly disagree with Noah's argument. I understand that certain characteristics of an individual can be found in his or her 'private life', but since when has it been fully possible to separate your private life from your so-called public one? You are an individual, made up of a sum of all your actions! You can't simply say, oh I do such and such behind closed doors, therefore when I present myself tomorrow in front of a crowd, I'll be a different person from who I was then. NO! and if one thinks he can actually pull off this dual-personality act, people should trust him even less.
ReplyDeleteI was also thinking of the Clinton scandal when reading the post. He committed perjury under oath, and for that he was rightly removed from office. However,political leaders should be first and foremost judged on their policy and effectiveness in office.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I do think we can be critical of the media here. By playing up the scandal, the media turned the public's attention away from Clinton's policies and towards his affair. The same thing is true of Gawker...who cares if he solicited the company of a woman on Cragislist? Okay, maybe we care a little. But all these scandals do is lower the public's trust in our leaders...and not in a responsible way.
Noelle, I think I agree with your criticism of the media (keep in mind that Gawker is a gossip blog, and the traditional media did not pick up the story until Lee resigned.)
ReplyDeleteBut at the same time, personal integrity does matter. Being a politician is not the same as being a plumber--we can't say we don't care about his personal life as long as he gets the job done. There is a lot of room for corruption in public office, so there is some merit to the idea that a politician having an upstanding personal life is an indicator that he will have integrity in his public life as well.
Then again, would we want to know if he argued with his wife, or if his kid is mad at him because he missed her birthday party? How far does this go?