Press: Back Off Bristol Palin!

When an individual throws him or herself into the glare of publicity by standing for public office, does the candidate drag the members of their family along with them? And should the press feel obligated to reveal prior or current indiscretions of the family members as they do the candidate?

There are several baseline questions that need to be addressed before answering either of these very troublesome questions: Has the candidate made his/her relationship with their family an issue in the campaign? Has the family member injected himself/herself into the campaign? What is the nature of the indiscretion? How old is the family member? Does the family member's act (or omission) shed any helpful light on the character of the candidate?

Let's look at the situation of Bristol Palin, five-months-pregnant, unmarried, 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate-in-waiting, Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska. The Palin camp announced the pregnancy in an effort to debunk rumors that cropped up in the blogosphere that the candidate's five-month-old son had actually been born to her daughter, Bristol, not to her.

With respect to the first question -- has the candidate made her relationship with her family an issue in the campaign -- the answer is a qualified yes. While Palin has not really been a candidate long enough (she was anointed Friday) to have made much of anything an issue in the campaign yet, her "family values" positions are certainly among the principal reasons she was chosen by McCain. In fact in the speech announcing her selection, he called her emblematic of "the hopes and the values of working people." So, an editor could make an argument that the "family values" issue makes a daughter's teen pregnancy fair game in a presidential race.

Has the family member injected herself into the campaign? Absolutely not. Aside from a quick photo shot of Bristol, alongside her brother and sisters on the platform on Friday, I have not heard a word she's uttered in support of her mother, McCain, the Republican platform or, for that matter, any public issue.

What is the nature of the indiscretion? A teen pregnancy out-of-wedlock. I don't think this clears the bar for press exposure. In 2001, the 19-year-old Bush girls, Barbara and Jenna, received misdemeanor citations from the Austin, TX police for underage drinking. There were those at the time who felt it was unfair for the press to inquire about and probe the incident and the Bushes' reaction. When law enforcement gets involved and there is a public record, the incident is fair game. When Andrew Giuliani put his name on a lawsuit against Duke University and filed suit, that is fair game for reporting. When a 17-year-old girl gets herself pregnant, I believe the press ought to stand down unless there's an unusually good justification for publishing.

How old is the family member? 17. Would any parent out there want to be judged as fit or unfit for their job on the basis of the nutty or irresponsible stuff our kids do? Even the proudest of parents knows that we're just a hair's breadth away from potentially disastrous consequences -- particularly with teenagers. This is not Billy Carter, or some other wacky adult relative who should be held responsible for his actions -- this is a near-child, who made a stupid mistake and now will live with it. It is very different than a responsible adult relative who screws up and embarrasses the candidate (and almost always knows that they're going to).

And finally, does the family member's conduct shed any light on the fitness of the candidate to hold office or on the candidate's morals, principles or values? The answer here is no. I am sure that in the days and weeks ahead there will be many things we learn about Sarah Palin that will make us acutely perplexed as to why John McCain thought she was the best possible option to be his second-in-command, but having a pregnant teenage daughter will definitely not be on the list. There are those that argue that having a teenage daughter get pregnant may be some reflection of her mothering skills, her attentiveness, her insight into her own family. I don't buy it. And even were that so, it would not provide any window on her suitability for the office of vice president; it would only be a measure of her mothering.

The toughest ethical questions faced by journalists involve when to involuntarily strip subjects of their privacy over matters they do not want disclosed. Since privacy is one of the most cherished values in a civilized society, we in the press need to be absolutely sure that when we do it, we have some higher ethical justification. In this case, there was none.

Read more reaction from HuffPost bloggers to John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate

Comments

[Badgirl]

I use Government to deliver my mail. I choose my Church and let it teach my kids religious and family values. Parents, teach your own kids your family and religious values. Don't leave it to a Government official, a state, local or federal bureaucrat backed by a well-funded lobbist.

[ChefLito]

Bristol's indiscretion maybe off the table. But the Republican Party and the Bush administration are very much into the issues of celibacy. many schools in fact opted not to take federal funding so they can teach sex education and what not. evidently, Bristol is a perfect example that the administration's celibacy program does not work, among other things.

[Tavi]

"When a 17-year-old gets herself pregnant . . ."

St. Bristol, Our Lady of Immaculate Conception?????

Ya' gotta love that outrageous Republican hypocritcal sense of humor!!!!!! This from the people who want to bring you/force feed you Abstinence Only sex-ed!

[JackieOC]

I disagree with you Ruth, Palin's life is an open book. I don't know about you but I consider bold face lies just as out of bounds as you do Palin's family. The Democrats are not really the ruthless ones, they are only giving back what they have been taking for quite some time. It's too bad but voters listen to the garbage and why the Republicans do it. The Democrats must play the game by those rules or they will lose just as we saw with Kerry. It is most certain the Republican's will continue their brutal dishonest attacks on Obama. The Democrats only need to bring out the ugly truths about McCain without lying. Those 90 some emails I've received filled with lies and distortions about Democratic candidates should well be out of bounds, unfortunately they are not. Until then, the Democrats are well within their rights to play by Karl Rove's rules of anything goes. What I say to the Republicans is if you don't like the heat get out of the kitchen.

[stanbsch]

To all the Bloggers ,Press,Pundits:
The subject, the issue is NOT outing a teenager who made a mistake with someone she loves.
IT is this: Her mother ,Gov, Palin, knowing her unborn child had Downs, CHOOSE TO give burth.
Bristol, knowing she is pregnant ,CHOOSES NOT to have an abortion. That is absolutely their right.
BUT Gov. Palin demands that the right to choose be totally removed from our society , from any woman who would wish to make another choice and that the other choice be made a CRIME, imposing a horrendous penalty on women and their doctors,
Does Evangelical Christianity really mean returning to blood ,infection and death in the alleyway.
Has the party who proclaimed compassionate is their middle name just lost any vision of what our
way of life is all about. The Constitution (and criminal law) is not a vehicle to impose a particular brand of religion on American society , it is the individual American's protection against those who would remove the right to choose.

and debase individual liberty and the right to choose.

[Ironfox]

What is the age of consent in Alaska? Anyone?

[KodeBloo]

So let me get this double standard straight. It's fine and dandy for Palin and the Republican Party to use her son's enlistment in the Army and deployment to Iraq to make political points FOR the Repub ticket, but it's NOT okay when her 17 year-old daughter's unwed pregnancy is cited as a hypocritical example of Palin's policies touting Abstinence Only and a woman's right to choose. Maybe you shouldn't parade your lovely family in front of People Magazine's cameras for political purposes and then whine when the harsh glare of the spotlight also exposes something ugly that contradicts everything you say you believe in and live by. You don't get to use one child to promote your personal ambitions and then cry "Hands off!" when another of your children brings less than favorable attention to your policies.

[JShankel]

Right, everyone's reproductive freedom and marital choices should be off the table.

Pro-choice gay-marriage supporters have no problem with that standard.

[ReElectNoOne]

Palin's daughter should be left alone. She is not running for office and has enough to deal with.

As far as Palin's "abilities" however, the pregnant teen daughter is representative of the failures to teach our youth the facts about sex and contraception.

This is an "I told you so" moment she should wake up to.

On the other hand Palin is willing to exploit her son's being in the military for political gain. Double standard?

[bknott]

Palin is responsible for the coverage that her family receives. She campaigns on "family values", she's for controversial (and unsuccessful) abstinence-only education, and her history as a mother is some of the only "experience" she brings to the table.

It's unrealistic to assume that no one is going to be interested that her teenage daughter has completely rejected her mother's message. It's unfair to blame everyone for being interested.

For the record, if the media is going to gossip, I would rather hear about a verified fact like this than more questions about whether Obama is Christian or not.

[PegHughes]

I really feel that this is a personal problem...not a political one...I have full confidence in her capabilities, and trust McCain's judgment. totally.

[ARDL]

Ruth, you are wrong here. I would generally agree about kids not being an issue but not when the candidate makes it an issue. First, its obvious she had her daughter hold a blanket to try to hide her condition and that tell me something about the candidate belief she can fool the public. Second, they are selling family values as a campaign asset. Third it also tells me sarah is putting her ambition over the need of a daughter. Blame sarah and the rnc not the press.

[NYprairiedog]

Yes, it had to be public - nothing in the family is sacrosanct anymore, not since the Monica nonsense - but it does spotlight Palin's sex ed and choice policies. No compassion there - even if you're raped, no choice. But I'm more concerned with her newborn. Who's going to care for that child? Fathers are great, but has he quit his job to do this? I don't understand how she can contemplate handing off the care of this newborn to anyone at this young age. She said she didn't understand what the VP did - does she think it's a part time job like her mayor's post?

[kheald]

I find the "kid gloves" approach that the media is taking with regard to Bristol Palin's pregnancy interesting, particularly in light of the way the Jamie Lynn Spears case was handled just a few short months ago. When Palin agreed to join the ticket she had to have considered the impact that this would have on her daughter and know that this pregnancy would be media fodder.

I think that this does speak to the family values question as well as Palin's abstinance only stance, which are certainly fair game.

[TEBA]

Sarah should have known that the public would scrutinize her and her family like they do any other public figure - politicians, celebs like Paris Hilton, etc. If the public wanted Bill Clinton impeached bc of his personal life decisions, she is no different. Women cannot want to be judged and opportuned the same as men in some situations and not in others. She is a mother who didn't guide her child in what to do when abstinence-only isn't the road chosen. It's insulting to compare a Communications major to a law practitioner; Palin is NO Hillary in any comparison than gender. If she can't stand the heat, she should get out of the kitchen!