Sunday, May 11, 2008

Questions of morality in politics...

Recently there were two high profile stories here in Ohio related to elected officials and sexual misconduct. One created a resignation, one is refusing to resign, at the face value both acts were consenual in nature, neither created a situation where the elected declared they had a problem and headed off to alcohol rehab but they both created questions of public trust.

This made me start thinking about previous issues of sexual misconduct of elected officials and the difference in how the media treated events years ago compared to today. Today we need to know everything, and we judge accordingly most times with the trials taking place by public media venting. Years ago the press knew of these affairs, knew of quite a bit of the personal misconduct but did not reveal that information. It was felt that even electeds had the right to a "private life" as long as a crime was not committed.

While I believe the public has a right to know some of these scenarios, I also can't help wonder how many of us would hold up as well under the constant public eye of scrutiny...

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