News or not?

Do we, as Americans, expect too much of our presidential candidates by our thirst for gossip? I think it’s fair to say that we all falter during our lives, perhaps some worse than others. In a recent article, The Edwards Confession: Unfit for NewsHour Viewers?, by Michael Getler, he writes about the John Edward’s recent confession of an affair.

Getler writes, “When I [Getler] asked Linda Winslow, executive producer of the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, for the reasoning behind the decision not to report this, she said: "It was decided not to report the story in our news summary on the grounds that Edwards is not a candidate for public office, and not on any short list for Vice President or any other public office, so it struck us as a problem for him and his family, not the American public."

It seems clear that there was a lot of thought placed into weather or not to treat Edwards as an every day person and not as a former presidential candidate. Was this a mistake? If this news organization passes on this type of story for these reasons, then is the standard rule? So, could we expect NewsHour to maintain that same ethical application to other and similar stories? Perhaps only time will tell if that is the case. Still, are we holding these officials to a higher standard by subscribing to that kind of rhetoric? It sometimes seems that we expect too much of people in these positions.