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When someone is elected to public office, who in their inner circle is fair to criticize and why?
This is something I’ve been thinking about all week since the 18-year-old child of Colorado’s most notorious lawmaker was featured in local, state, national, and even international news for alleged legal misconduct. That’s a question. While the argument seemed to be going well, his alleged actions reflected a larger moral failing on the part of the politician’s mother (though I won’t reveal her name) and further reinforced her unfitness to serve as an MP. It’s proven.
Just for the record, that’s true. The boy’s mother is not suitable to be a member of parliament. I don’t know if she’s as disqualified because of her son’s mistakes as her own, but I don’t need to cite her son to back up her statement. There’s plenty of evidence. So what’s to be gained by reporting on him when he’s not a candidate?
Given that many news outlets quickly spread this story to the front page, I seem to be among the minority who are disgusted by reporting on politicians’ families, especially their children.
And it’s not because I think this teenager should be exempt from public criticism, but rather that the intensity of the backlash he will receive is less about his actions and more about who his mother is. Because it depends, and the feedback is objectively outsized. I don’t have particularly high expectations for this character, especially since the extra attention could affect how his trial progresses, but I’m still not completely sold on it.
There is also the problem of reluctance to conclude to what extent we can hold family members accountable for their actions in public. For example, is a murderer’s father partly responsible for his son’s murder?
According to the first case of its kind, perhaps if his son was able to continue the murders because of his father’s supervision. But are all parents guilty of their children? Probably not. I hesitate to set a precedent revealing all the mistakes of my family. Particularly when children are involved, for the maybes reason.
Now, getting back to politics, what if the person in question is the spouse of a politician? Are their moral failures reflected in their ability to hold office and make decisions? Does it matter if an elected official wasn’t involved? What if it wasn’t a legal flaw, but a moral flaw, such as cheating or lying? Does it really affect people’s ability to legislate any more than it affects lawyers?
Some might say that just by running for Congress, you accept that all family ties are on the table. Perhaps this is true, but again, I’m not so sure it’s a good thing. Others say that publicizing the son’s actions in this case was justified because the lawmaker intentionally attacked the family of an opponent and used the family as a political shield to politicize himself. I heard that there is. This is also true, and people in glass houses generally shouldn’t throw stones, so perhaps this is the tipping point.
Still, will two wrongs be righted here? When is it okay to purposefully drag a child or family through the mud for years? We learn nothing new about the person holding public office, and at most it should be a local or regional news story. Is it better to explode an article into an international sensation? I don’t know if that’s the case, but that’s the question.
After all, I may not be in the majority on this opinion, but apparently I’m not alone. Another Colorado journalist, Kyle Clark, recently hinted at a similar struggle, responding to a question about why he didn’t cover the story with the following tweet: The range of levels I have seen. And especially since his adult son did not call out any public figures to avoid the consequences, and the public figures did not make any excuses against his son. ”
He’s right. Much of the focus on members of Congress’ families at this point feels like a cheap shot to garner clicks and stir-fry. Most people have long made assumptions about this congresswoman, but there is little new information we can learn about her ethics that we don’t already know from her direct actions, which reduces the newsworthiness of her family. . Arguing about the extent of her crap is more like her morbid curiosity than staying rationally informed.
Yet here we are, and many of us are transfixed by the train wreck. It’s as if we forget that there are real people affected by our vile rubbernecks, including family members who are too young to have any control over what’s going on. Isn’t their privacy at least a little more important?
I admit that this question is easier to ask if you have a little empathy. Because I feel differently when the people in question are family members that I actually value. For example, if it were the Obamas’ adult children who made the mistake, even if they were wrong, I’d give them a little more privacy and empathy, and let them work it out as a family. right.
So, with this in mind, I ask again: Does it still seem morally right or fair to drag a lawmaker’s barely legal son into international news? Because I’m afraid that’s not the case. So why are we like this?
Trish Zornio is a scientist, lecturer, and author who has worked at some of the nation’s top universities and hospitals. She is an avid rock climber and a 2020 Colorado Senate candidate.Trish can be found on Twitter @trish_zornio
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