Thursday, July 01, 2004

Private Eyes: It's time for politicians to fight back against the media, and I'm happy to see that John Kerry is leading that charge.

The news media has already derailed Jack Ryan's Senate candidacy this year after the Chicago Tribune opened up his court records from his divorce. Apparently Mr. Ryan wanted to be kind of kinky with his wife, and she is now using that against him. For that reason, the man is considered unfit to run for public office.

Clarence Page took his own employer to task by criticizing the far-reaching effects of overzealous reporters and the destruction of Jack Ryan's campaign:

If that's all it takes to knock off an otherwise worthy candidate, we need no longer wonder why more bright, talented and qualified people in this great land of ours would rather have a root canal than run for public office.

Now some journalists are eyeing Kerry's divorce from 1988. They don't know if there's anything there, but they're willing to dig through a man's personal life and smear his reputation for supposed "news".

Reporters seem to believe that once you become an elected official or someone of public curiosity, you lose all right to privacy. And nothing gets better ratings than sex-sex-sex, so that's where reporters dig. Fortunately, Kerry is defending his own privacy against the vultures in the news business by demanding that his divorce records be left alone.

Unfortunately, this won't be the last time this happens. After the Republicans put this country through hell by trying to impeach President Clinton for his sexual indiscretions, you'd think that the public would have had enough. But the press keeps trying to feed the beast, making a mockery of politics.