John LeBoutillier
Friday June 8, 2001

Where there used to be a line no one crossed, that line has now been completely obliterated.

Forty years ago every single member of the White House press corps knew that JFK was having affairs with a number of women. Yet this was never reported. In fact, it wasn't until the late 1970s – after Watergate opened the floodgates – that JFK's infidelities were presented to the American people.

Now look where we are: The two Bush girls are grist for the journalistic mill, and Mayor Rudy Giuliani's marital and bathroom woes are front-page news – by his own choice!

Yes, the families are part of the calculation a potential candidate now needs to make in choosing to run or not. All family members are open targets. Kids, siblings, parents, spouses – they are now all put in the public eye.

And, in some cases, they should be. Hillary Clinton’s brother – Hugh Rodham – was living in the White House during the last few weeks of the Clinton presidency and, we now know, was selling pardons for cash! This information should be made public. He had White House stewards serving him dinner each night in the Map Room. In other words, taxpayer-funded servants were waiting on Hugh Rodham while he and Bill Clinton were 'selling' pardons!

In last year's presidential campaign we had another level of 'news' never quite seen before: Both Al Gore's and George Bush's college grades became part of the public record – as did Bush's on-campus behavior while at Yale.

Never before have the media gone that far back into a candidate’s background.

The saga of Jenna and Barbara Bush is yet another instance where what used to be a private matter has become front-page news – and not just in the National Enquirer but in all papers.

Ironically, as the so-called mainstream media have lowered themselves, the National Enquirer and the Star have actually broken more legitimate news stories than anyone else. In the OJ case, the Jesse Jackson love child case, the Arnold Schwarzenegger groping case and many others recently, it is this 'tabloid' paper that has scooped the New York Times and the Washington Post.

In the eyes of the public there is no difference between the tabloids and the other supposedly more legitimate news organizations.

Did you know that each week more people read the National Enquirer than read Time and Newsweek combined?

And the 'tabloid' TV shows have also cut heavily into the viewership of the Big Three Networks' evening newscasts.

Where is it all headed?

Basically, if you choose to enter public life by running for office, there are no boundaries for the inquiring media. None! Be prepared for the snooping-through-the-trash – and for old romances, failed spelling tests and even set-ups to ensnare you in a bad headline.

The good news?

The public doesn’t care much. The people seem to want a "zone of privacy" for public officials. And the public deplores the media's conduct in almost all instances.

That is the biggest development of all: The American people have grown to loathe the press.

It's about time!