Posted on 02/06/2006 12:33:36 PM PST by presidio9
Ever since reporters took up Gary Hart's challenge to put a tail on him, then sunk his 1988 presidential candidacy with details of a tryst with an attractive model, the private sex lives of prominent politicians have been considered fair game for the press.
The journalistic rationale is that character counts and voters have a right to know about questionable personal conduct because it may tell something about how an individual will perform in office or serve the public interest without fear or favor.
Yet most mainstream news outlets continue to grant a reasonable right of privacy to public officials, depending on their notoriety, the nature of reports about their private lives and whether reporters think the sordid details are newsworthy and, therefore, worth checking out.
Supermarket tabloids operate under different rules. They take a devil-may-care approach, often basing stories about bad behavior by public figures on hearsay more than first-hand accounts or records such as a birth certificate. Lack of official confirmation is not an obstacle.
The contrast can create public confusion. If a tabloid touts a curious story about a well-known person, why does the mainstream media all but ignore it? Shouldn't there at least be a mention of the story, and an effort to press the person for a response?
Those were the types of questions asked by newspaper readers, Web bloggers and callers to talk-show programs after the National Enquirer's front-page story two weeks ago that said Sen. Ted Kennedy was the biological father of a boy born to a Cape Cod woman 21 years ago.
At the time, Kennedy was single, having divorced his first wife, Joan, in 1982. He married his second wife, Victoria Reggie, in 1992. There have been plenty of rumors about Kennedy's conduct during his bachelor days between marriages, but nothing about fathering what the National Enquirer described as a "secret love child."
The supermarket tabloid based its story on anonymous sources in the Kennedy and the woman's families | and published the identities and pictures of the woman and her adult son. It said Kennedy had urged her to get an abortion but she declined, was paid at least $15,000 "from someone in the Kennedy camp" and later married a local man who adopted the son.
A few mainstream populist papers | the Boston Herald and the New York Daily News, for example | printed stories about the National Enquirer's account. Kennedy's hometown paper, The Cape Cod Times of Hyannis, published an editor's column saying it had refused to sell a picture of the young man to the Enquirer but, strangely, never mentioned Kennedy by name, referring to him only as a "prominent politician." The paper said it had tried to authenticate the story on its own but couldn't.
Follow-up stories included a terse statement from Kennedy's office | but not the senator directly | that the Enquirer's story was "irresponsible fiction." There was also speculation by Kennedy friends that it was timed to embarrass him for his aggressive questioning of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. The woman and her son declined to comment.
No major mainstream paper or broadcast network carried the story. Ditto most of the Massachusetts and New Hampshire newspapers, including the Eagle-Tribune papers. And that befuddled some readers, mainly Kennedy's critics. If the story wasn't true, they reasoned, then why didn't Kennedy himself come out and say so, and also announce he was suing the National Enquirer for defamation. A few people suggested Kennedy, who turns 74 this month, had influenced the press to largely ignore the story.
To understand the news media's dichotomy on this story you need to know that the journalistic standards for publishing information about private lives of public figures can differ from news organization to news organization, but that most mainstream outlets publish only if they are certain the damning details are accurate and pertinent to the individual's public performance.
In Kennedy's case, the National Enquirer's reputation for rumor-mongering would automatically cause concern about the truthfulness of the story. Beyond that, journalists could legitimately question the newsworthiness of the story, given it happened two decades ago and had no apparent tie to the senator's public life.
Nearly every public figure has a skeleton or two in his or her closet. Sometimes reporters discover them while scrutinizing backgrounds, and sometimes they don't. Sometimes they write about them, and sometimes they don't. There is no hard-and-fast ethical guidepost. If a story is verifiable, then many mainstream journalists tend to ask if it is something the public needs to know, and if it is so important that it eclipses a public figure's reasonable right to privacy. Public curiosity is a factor, although not usually the most important one.
The threshold for publishing or broadcasting such a story is also determined by the level of prominence. A candidate for president, for instance, will find journalists more willing to disclose the smallest intimate details. The logic goes that candidates who pursue the highest office in the land should expect total visibility of their private life. Few things are considered off-limits.
Gary Hart found that out when he tested the press to check out his reputation as a womanizer while seeking the White House more than 18 years ago. His risky behavior with model Donna Rice led him to become the first candidate to be asked in public if he was an adulterer.
Kennedy isn't running for president this year, but he is a candidate for re-election to another six-year term in the Senate. Thus far no Republican has announced plans to challenge him. Still, it would not be out of bounds for reporters to ask him during the campaign if he fathered a child out of wedlock in the mid-1980s and paid the mother to keep quiet about it.
That's a question now out there whether he likes it or not. And his answer may affect how some voters view his character and future effectiveness when casting their ballots in November.
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William B. Ketter is editor-in-chief of The Eagle-Tribune in North Andover, Mass.
Two words "Big Dig"
Ted: What's the verdict?
Diver: The engine's flooded.
Ted: %@&^%$!! I know that. What about my 8-tracks?
Diver: Hey, there's a girl in the back?
Ted: Focus, son, focus. What about my Alice Cooper tapes?
Diver: I think she's dead
Ted: Well, hit her with that pipe then and make sure.
I remember how the media respected President Richard Nixon's privacy. Right!
Some politicians are protected while others are not. It is the perogative of the press, and it is obvious which way that cookie crumbles.
Apparently, they like them. It's crazy, I know; but they do for some strange reason. I am not sure the people who voted for these two really thought it through.
Puuuhhh-Leeeeeezzzzzze....."Camelot" was only for like--3 years and that automatically makes EVERY member of the Kennedy Fmaily an instant Hero or Role Model???
Not from Taxachusetts, but most of the ones who could leave...have gone.
They had 16 Congressional Seats in the 1920's, now down to ten, and soon to lose one or two more in the next census.
Their votes for President have seen the same decline.
Unfortunately many of the DUmmies went to New Hampshire...
Taxachusetts is left with an increasing mass of lazy beggars who will not work ...
With all their nice benefits, Taxachusetts is now an International magnet.
This would be a shocker if true, and it seems believable to me. No wonder he wants to keep abortion legal. So many womens rights groups scream about a woman's right to choose, they ignore the possibility that many young girls may be pressured into an abortion against their will. It really should be called a "man's right to avoid responsibility. Please don't flame me, I am not slamming all men, just women who say it is all about a woman's right to choose when they make no effort to protect a woman's right to choose to have the baby.
There are a few million sensible people in MA who've never voted for any Kennedy, including Fatso.
I hope it's true.
Mary Jo Kopechne was unavailable for comment.
Alice Cooper votes Republican. Please don't like him to Ted Kennedy.
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