POLS 3440 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Judith Exner, Pillow Talk, Job Performance

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLS 3440
• Professor: Geoff Stevens

Document Summary

One of the thorniest issues we will address in this course is the balancing of the public"s right to know with a politician"s right to privacy. Most politicians will concede that winning elected office means giving up a measure of their personal privacy. Most citizens would agree that the public is entitled to be informed if a politician is allowing his or her personal life to affect their job performance, or if their private behaviour reveals hidden character flaws. Whenever a politician is caught engaging in inappropriate behaviour, especially sexual misconduct, the media cries scandal, and political opponents claim to be outraged. But the label scandal is badly over-used, employed almost indiscriminately to describe conduct that may be stupid, risky or irresponsible. Not usually not if it involves purely private or personal behaviour and does not affect the politician"s ability to serve the public. It requires other elements to make it a scandal.