POLS 3440 Lecture Notes - Christine Keeler, Maxime Bernier, Dominick Fernow
Document Summary
Unit 07: sex scandals and political privacy objectives: Whenever a politician is caught engaging in inappropriate behaviour, especially sexual misconduct, the media cries scandal! the term scandal is badly over-used, employed almost indiscriminately to describe conduct that may be stupid, risky or irresponsible. Not usually not if involves purely private or personal behaviour. It requires other elements to qualify as a scandal. Stealing millions of dollars from the public purse is a scandal. So is awarding fat government contracts to one"s friends or relations. Former u. s. president bill clinton had sex with a girl at the office. If that was all there was to it, his relationship with monica lewinsky, assuming it became public knowledge, would have faded from the supermarket tabloids after a few weeks. But other factors turned it into a huge scandal that refused to go away. For one thing, clinton lied under oath, which raised major questions about his character.