"... beginning with the Gary Hart scandal, private mores and sexual behavior became part of the regular political conversation ..."

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How Far Should Journalists Go When Probing The Private Lives Of Political Candidates?
By RadioBoston, September 29, 2014



As Massachusetts voters prepare to elect a new governor, one of the perennial questions in a political race involves how far the press should probe a candidate’s private life. Matt Bai, a reporter for The New York Times, wrote about this recently in a piece he called, “Original Sin.”

It tells the the sensational story of Gary Hart’s presidential bid in 1987 — and how it came crashing down amid revelations of an extramarital affair.

As Bai writes, this was “an unprecedented collision of media, politics and sex.” Before that moment, Bai makes the point that journalists pretty much stayed out of politicians’ private lives.

Presidents from Roosevelt to Kennedy to Johnson got a free pass, despite evidence of marital infidelity. But beginning with the Gary Hart scandal, private mores and sexual behavior became part of the regular political conversation — from Bill Clinton to Jesse Jackson to General David Petraeus.

Matt Bai suggests this shift has damaged political journalism and our political culture. Is he right?

Tom Fiedler played a central role in the Gary Hart story. Now, Fiedler is the dean of Boston University’s College of Communication. But back in 1987, he was a political reporter for the Miami Herald who published an explosive investigative story that ended Gary Hart’s quest for the presidency.

The story transfixed the nation, not only because of the lurid details of a journalistic sting, sex and denials. But also, as Tom Fiedler reminds us, because of who Gary Hart was — and how close the handsome senator from Colorado came to being president.

“He had double-digit leads over any of the other opponents out there,” said Fiedler. “And, he had double-digit leads over the likely Republican nominee, George H.W. Bush.”
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