Nothing Sacred

Chelsea Clinton has been taking heat lately following her appearance at Dickenson College in Pennsylvania. A male in the audience asked if her mother's credibility was damaged following the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and Chelsea responded, "Wow, you're the first person actually that's ever asked me that question in the, I don't know maybe, 70 college campuses I've now been to, and I do not think that is any of your business." The answer was met with applause from the crowd; however, news analysis shows have since dissected the event and have criticized Chelsea for her refusal to answer the question. Many in the media have claimed that the question from the audience was legitimate, not only in content, but also because Chelsea is now 28 and has positioned herself as a spokesperson for her mother. Others in the media have defended Chelsea, saying there is a distinction between public life and private life that is no longer respected in the media, and Chelsea was right to toss the question aside.

Barack Obama's right to privacy was in question recently when on vacation with his family in Greensboro, North Carolina. At first, his campaign refused to expose the location of the vacation, but when pressured by CNN's "Where in the World is Barack Obama" game, the mystery location was forced out. Followed relentlessly by a lone CNN camera, Obama was filmed saying he was just "Trying to be on vacation." CNN did not agree. The decision to try to avoid the media was not up to Obama, obviously proved by CNN, and further confirmed by comments from NBC's Chuck Todd who wrote, “we did a thorough debate internally and did our due diligence on this and felt it wasn't necessary this time; that doesn't mean we won't do this in the future; this was a decision made on this particular vacation.” Similarly, Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times said, “The decision was made to not cover Senator Obama’s vacation because he is not the nominee or presumptive nominee.” In both comments and in CNN's coverage, the decision to have a private vacation was clearly out of Obama's hands. Had the New York Times and NBC decided to cover Obama, they certainly would have found justification for their intrusion into his vacation.


So what is fair coverage of a candidate? And when do personal questions become too personal? Go ahead, Wax Politic!