How Gary Hart Became the First Political Sex Scandal Casualty

[DonViejo]

Lloyd Grove

In a new book on the 1987 scandal that wrecked Gary Hart’s presidential chances, Matt Bai argues that the episode marks the moment when political reporting went tabloid.

If Matt Bai becomes the instrument of redemption for former senator Gary Hart, best known as the central figure in a sex scandal that sank his front-running presidential campaign and provided endless fodder for the late-night comics, he’s probably just in time.

Hart—who, according to Bai’s new book, All the Truth Is Out, has struggled to find a purpose in life since his descent into tabloid hell a quarter-century ago—turns 78 in November.

It will surely come as a welcome balm to a failed statesman in his twilight years that a widely respected political journalist—and a wonderful writer to boot—has re-examined the senator’s stretch on the spit and basically signed on to his theory of the ordeal: namely, that Hart was the first victim of a political news media that had finally, in the spring of 1987, succumbed to the mob-pleasing temptation to display entertainment over serious reporting, gossip and trivialization over policy and substance, and take “character” simply to mean “character flaws.”

Woe to the Republic, Bai argues, that visionary if imperfect leaders like Hart aren’t permitted to put their talents to the benefit of the people because of a cheap, tawdry media barrier that is every bit as impassable as the Berlin Wall once was. “The Week Politics Went Tabloid” is Bai’s bold subtitle, suggesting that Hart’s nightmare was a transformational moment. (Bai’s argument is somewhat undercut by the fact that 15 years later, in an even less hospitable media environment, Bill Clinton survived a much tougher scandal—not only the Whitewater business and the Gennifer Flowers tapes but allegations of draft-dodging and lying about it—and went on to win two terms in the White House. Of course, maybe Clinton, who even post-Lewinsky ranks as one of the country’s most admired public figures, wasn’t as fine a president as Gary Hart would have been.)

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/01/how-gary-hart-became-the-first-political-sex-scandal-casualty.html

[hollysmom]

1. oh, come on, this was a case of the politician daring reporters to cover it.

That was not the turning point, For one thing, there has always been a tabloid part of the news. "Rosebud' News papers owners always tried to wield not somewhat lost influence to get what they wanted. Citizen Cane was not about how newspaper owners loved sleds.

This may have been the first time some people took notice, but there were stories about the presidents illegitimate child etc. back into the papers at the time of the revolution. The honest news hound is mostly a fiction, occasionally there is someone who wants to get their truth out there, but mostly it is the decision of a corporate news types.

[pscot]

2. He went out in a blaze, didn't he?

[CTyankee]

3. well, it was a case of "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime," altho it wasn't a crime...

and I get that, but he was pretty insouciant about the consequences and to me, a feminist, he really should have owned up. His problem, his explanation. He had to come clean.

The time was past that he could just shrug it off. Sorry he had to take it on the chin but c'mon...l

[unrepentant progress]

4. That's a good story. Too bad it isn't true.

The Washington Post started stalking Hart before his quip in an interview with EJ Dionne, which was never intended to be a dare, was ever published. They had no idea Hart had made that statement.

Read Matt Bai's article, rather than relying on your manufactured memories and idiotic analysis.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/magazine/how-gary-harts-downfall-forever-changed-american-politics.html

I'm not sure if we'd have been better off with a Hart presidency. Given that he's the prototypical neoliberal, we might have had fewer wars, but we might also have seen the destruction of the welfare state well before Clinton.

[hollysmom]

5. Well, let me reply to your idiotic analysis

those are not manufactured memories, it was how it was reported at the time. Maybe someone else manufactured them , I didn't. So thanks for the "thoughtful reply to someone who is supposed to be a political ally, Nice to see democrats can work together. And people wonder how we lose elections.

Basically my post was that tabloid journalism always existed, I still stand by that comment.

[unrepentant progress]

6. Also, it's Citizen Kane

Facts matter.