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TechnoratiThe mighty fall and the media cash in
Why are newspapers gasping in scandalised horror over the misdeeds of Eliot Spitzer? They wrote the script.
The world news in the New Zealand
Herald yesterday was dominated by a large photo with a bold
caption identifying the subject as “The woman who brought down a
governor”. Last week the average Herald reader knew as much
about New York Governor Eliot Spitzer as New Yorkers knew about our
antipodean newspaper: nothing, nix, nada. Now we, like the rest of world,
know that Mr Spitzer has resigned from his top-ranking position and
we also know in considerable detail why: he has joined the ranks of
American politicians who have fallen from grace through sexual
misconduct -- and been discovered.
This is a sex scandal -- right? A man
has disgraced himself by having recourse to a prostitute, which is a
crime where he comes from, and paying her and her bosses tens of
thousands of dollars in ways that were also possibly criminal. He has
betrayed and humiliated his wife and three teenage daughters. Having
presented himself as a crusader against corruption and a man of moral
rectitude he has shown himself a hypocrite and undermined, further,
public confidence in government. He has ruined his own life. So
what’s with the big picture of callgirl Ashley Dupre -- the woman
Spitzer had his most recent, incriminating encounter with -- in
bikini and provocative pose, starring on the front page of section
two?
Titillation, that’s what; shameless
and hypocritical use by the media of the individuals in this tragedy
to increase ratings and sales. And this by the world’s premier
newspapers, whose motto seems to be, “We are all tabloids now.”
Take the New York Times. On
Day One it is all shock and dismay that a liberal hero has fallen. By
Day Two they are running a detailed reconstruction of his last
assignation with the prostitute. Day Three brings a profile of Mrs
Silda Spitzer after a frantic ring around her friends to collect the
gossip on her relationship with her husband. Ironically, there is
also an opinion piece by the estranged wife of James McGreevey, the
gay former governor of New Jersey, which ends by urging respect for
Mrs Spitzer’s privacy -- of all things. Day Four it’s a profile
of Ms Dupre herself, “star of the seamy drama that is the downfall
of Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York”, as the Times puts it.
They should know; they are co-writing the script.
Who needs all this stuff?
The public only needs to know what
affects the public interest: the criminal charges, if any, and in due
course the court findings. Judicious commentary can be helpful in
putting such events into perspective. More than that comes of the
devil. If the media were doing their jobs well, ordinary reporting
would bring to light questionable behaviour before it escalated into
a major scandal. Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley
Strassel says the press gave Mr Spitzer an easy ride during his
campaign against corporate “big guys” while he played the bully
himself. “The former New York attorney general never believed
normal rules applied to him,” she says, “and his view was
validated time and again by an adoring press.”
Mr Spitzer concurred with the view that
forced prostitution is modern form of slavery. Last year he signed a
law creating new criminal penalties for that and other kinds of
forced labour. At the same time he increased the penalty under New
York’s existing law against patronising a prostitute. Like him, the
press comes down on forced sex and other kinds of human trafficking
like a ton of bricks, because it is politically correct to do so. The
buying and selling of sex on a consensual basis, however, finds them
ambivalent.
All the newspapers run ads for “escort” agencies and “adult entertainment”. The Economist a couple of years ago argued brazenly that prostitution was merely part of the market and people should be left free to trade in sex if they wanted to. And what is the greater part of mass media entertainment -- from Sex In The City to Seventeen and even Barbie magazine -- but commercial exploitation of the sensuality that brought Mr Spitzer tumbling down and daily drags society deeper into the mire?
So let’s have no more gasps of horror
and crocodile tears from the media establishment over fallen idols.
Let the papers of record and the investigative journalists clean up
their own act. Instead of filling pages with the lurid details of
personal sins and social crimes, let them get on with their real job
of subjecting everyone to fair scrutiny and reporting what will
prevent abuses of power and betrayals of faith.
Ordinary people do not want to wade
through acres of smut and gossip to get to some useful news and
uplifting entertainment. They are trying to build up their families
and societies, and if the denizens of Times Square and Fleet Street
don’t want to help them, they deserve to go out of business.
Carolyn Moynihan is Deputy Editor of MercatorNet. She writes from Auckland, New Zealand.
This is major news and must be reported. The subject is scandalous in nature, so I have no problem with this story and don’t view it in a tabloid light. Trivial and false gossip stories are the one’s I have issues with.
In agreement with Alistair, both writers and consumers - and then advertisers too - push media into tabloidism. It’s a chicken and egg scenario.
I was impressed by a book (as I frequently am, working in a bookstore) called “The Elements of Journalism” by Bill Kovach & Tom Rosensteil. They list the following as the elements of quality media coverage:
* Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth.
* Its first loyalty is to citizens.
* Its essence is a discipline of verification.
* Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
* It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
* It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.
* It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant.
* It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
* Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.
I particularly like “make the significant interesting and relevant”. Maybe this could help to send the tabloid spiral into reverse.
Carolyn is right on many counts. Newspaper buyers and readers deserve better than the poppy-cock stuff we see in the feature columns.
But the Eliot Spitzer story must be brought to the fore by all editors with good intentions. It is a sound reminder to all of us that each of us is capable of committing the worst offences under heaven (if left to only human devices)
And after committing those crimes, we must rise up and walk again...albeit with some difficulty and the constant reminder from immortal scars.
I think Dr Michael Jones of “Culture Wars” magazine had it right when he said that so-called “sexual liberation” is really a means of social control. The regime which came into power in the 60s through the sexual revolution used the instruments of inflaming sexual passions (ie, the pornographers, the titillating media, the rock music industry, etc) to control those whose passions are inflamed by them.
I’m afraid that the truth isn’t that the media alone is to blame. It is also the consuming public. The really sad thing is that too many people do want to read salubrious and sensational stories like this. And that’s what drives the news media - they are feeding a market demand. If the demand wasn’t there the editors, eager for more advertising, wouldn’t run the stories. Sadly that’s the truth.
Well said Carolyn. The media milk every scandal for every last drop - it sells their papers of course. We need a new newspaper in Oz - informed, elegant, direct, morally courageous, uplifting,… ahh,,wouldn’t it be luverly!
Carolyn has a point - but everyone is interested in this story, because it is a human story that is repeated time and again .All the serious media are getting into the act .
I was contacted by the ABC a couple of days ago ( at an unearthly hour of the morning) to comment on whether or not mrs. spitzer should satnd by her man . I hardly knew anything about it and they were obviously trying to set me up because I am a well known anti feminist and they consider me a ‘moralist’. Curiously they couldn’t see past her as a ‘victim’.
But i presented the point of view that none of us actually knows anything about this couple and if mrs. spitzer wants to stand by her man she might be doing out of sheer loyalty- or she might be doing it because of the Faustian bargain entered into by many women , especially those who have a husband in public life , of their own free will.
I suppose the misfortune’s of the ex-governor of New York will be/ have already been on ENTERTAINMENT TO-NIGHT . . .
sad-tragic-stupid- whatever . . . take your pick.
E.S. needs to smarten up. I’m sure we all feel very sorry for his family.
Charles+
I read every bit of the coverage in the New York Times. I spoke at length with my two teenage sons about twisted perversion of what he did. To me, the Spitzer matter is akin to college students viewing pictures of drunk drivers killed in auto accidents as a way of scarring them sober.
Exposing all of the lurid details allows others to see into the mind of a narcissist. One needs to know the enemy.
When you write: ‘And what is the greater part of mass media entertainment ... but commercial exploitation of the sensuality that brought Mr Spitzer tumbling down and daily drags society deeper into the mire?’ it makes me wonder how deep this mire must be. This kind of thing has been going on for hundreds of years, in one form or another. To suggest that it gets worse by the day is ridiculous and puts you in the ranks those of boring old people who alwayss tut-tut at the way kids are today.
The point about this case is that it’s a particularly spectacular, and therefore interesting, example of human weakness, and the fact that people want to read about it reveals another human weakness, but as we are human then we should be foregiven for that - even if we prefer the New York Times to the tabloids.
Good article. People who know what’s good for them do not want to wade through pages of gossip and smut, but I think in this secularised, sexualised, anything goes society, many people are numb and oblivious to it, and so think it’s harmless fun. Papers know this and exploit it to sell copies.
hmmm…
Definitely, a crime of the flesh, and soon the punishment, unimaginable! Thank you for your article, Carolyn. Makes you wonder what the punishment will be for the sin of pride?
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