Nicholas' Blog Entry #6

Nicholas Savasta
Blog 6

Chapter 12-Privacy for Political Leaders
The American press has traditionally seen its role in our democracy as the Fourth Estate, an unelected but active player in the life of the republic. Some, however, would accuse the media of being too active of a player: writing stories from their own biases and mercilessly intruding on the privacy of political figures.

In the 20th century, the press went from being a watchdog of candidates’ morals to a lapdog. (Smith, 241-242)

In an editorial about health the New York Times outlines the presidential nominees health status in: “Questions About Their Health.”

Again, the media goes a little bit too far in investigating the health of the candidates. Yes, I do think it is important to measure the health of the world’s most powerful positions but a couple of things this article outlined prove how intrusive the media can be sometimes!
“Senator McCain allowed a small pool of reporters to review 1,200 pages of medical records during a three-hour period and then allowed a few of his doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona to answer questions by telephone for 45 minutes. The reporters were not allowed to photocopy any documents, making it harder for them to ask other experts what the medical findings might imply.”

Another bit that proves they go too far sometimes is outlined here:
“Senator Joseph Biden, who two decades ago was operated on for potentially life-threatening aneurysms in the brain, has released 49 pages of records and a letter from the Capitol physician saying that the senator has recovered fully. It is not known whether he has been evaluated by a neurologist recently. A doctor who relayed the Capitol physician’s thoughts said no tests were needed now because Mr. Biden had done well for 20 years.”

The fact that both of the older candidates release 1,200 pages and 49 pages of records is absolutely crazy to me! It seems as if with all of this information and a statement from Obama’s doctor the press should be happy, but they are not. I won’t even get into Sarah Palin (who hasn’t released any records and won’t even talk about her health at all) because the last of our problems if she is elected Vice President will be her health! One of our first problems will be if John McCain’s bout with cancer is more serious than anyone has let on and she becomes President. Yikes!

All in all, this article (although short) mentions just one case of the media being too obtrusive in the search for information on the four candidates of this election. The 1,250 pages of information released are not enough? Why not?

As far as I am concerned, and as important as the health of each candidate is, we need to focus on other issues. We need to continue to give politicians their personal respect and personal privacy. We need to stop intruding on personal matters and start reporting (more) on government, national, and global issues.