From Daily Beast
For many years, Schwarzenegger employed pit-bull attorney Marty Singer—whose legal threats to journalists are the stuff of legend—to stamp out negative stories and discredit women who claimed he'd misbehaved in front of them. Even Anthony Pellicano, the disgraced private investigator currently serving a 15-year sentence for wiretapping, racketeering, and wire fraud, reportedly worked on Schwarzenegger's behalf for a time, sifting through his client's own trash to suss out potential enemies.Should politicians be fair game? What is the ethical fallout that his behavior was purposely shielded by a corporate sponsor?
But perhaps the greatest coup came in 2002, shortly before Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy for Governor. That year, David Pecker's American Media, which publishes supermarket tabloids like The National Enquirer and Star, purchased a slew of fitness magazines from Schwarzenegger's mentor Joe Weider in a transaction valued at around $350 million. Soon after, AMI signed up the Terminator himself in a multi-year contract that made him the executive editor of a number of its publications.
AMI got a PR boost from the publicity, and Schwarzenegger got a certain amount of immunity from the company’s tireless attack dogs. As one longtime AMI staffer put it to Los Angeles Magazine in a 2004 article by Ann Louise Bardach, “When Weider was being bought, the edict came down: No more Arnold stories.”
While Mr. Schwarzenegger's actions may have been less than divine, there is still nothing to say that this behaviour is unacceptable. By knowing the right people, and twisting the media system to his advantage, he was able to make money and gain an amnesty of sorts that would help to protect his political career. While he may still have disproved the latter, and ended his career anyway, he was still able to put up some protection from the media, which isn't exactly the "whole truth, and nothing but" system that we sometimes like to think it is. So to sum everything up, The ethical fallout from being sponsored isnt all that great in comparison to the fallout from cheating on his wife; and while politicians should be focused on more important things, it is still nevertheless a contest and are still fair game.
ReplyDeleteI''l state my standing on this first and I believe that politicians are fair game. I find it actually very important that people investigate politicians. If I am going to make a decision on who I want to represent me in politics I want to make sure that I know as much as I can to make the best decision possible. I think that in the everyday world there will be no ethical fallout. Most of the time all of this is kept under wraps and is hidden from the public. Also, if the public was to find out of these happenings it is unlikely that most of the public would react to it as strongly as us dissecting this piece or the journalists that discovered this incident.
ReplyDelete-Bobby Giese
Politicians are supposed to be our leaders, ones that make important decisions regarding the prosperity and well being of citizens all over the nation. Therefore, I believe politicians are completely fair game and should be investigated. If I am voting in an election, I would be voting for someone honest and respectable, not a lying and conniving snake so to speak. In the past decade or so, adultery and scandalous affairs have become a sort of staple of American politics, from governors to senators, congressmen to even presidents. Arnold played his situation to his advantage however. Using his type of diplomatic immunity within the media, he shielded himself from being caught up in in any kind of scandal for a long time. I do not see this as censorship, just a failure to mention certain things that could put a damper on his political career. I believe there is a major ethical fallout in the fact that a man has the ability to override what people deserve to know. Not to say citizens have to know everything regarding the private lives of elected officials but it is still unethical to keep the public in shadows of the truth through this mild form of censorship.
ReplyDelete-Anthony Sarlo
I believe the attention turned towards politicians is somewhat more hostile than celebrities. Lindsay Lohan, for example, has every mistake she made plastered on basically every newspaper since her first DUI. If politicians couldn't discredit the enemies they made, how many leaders could be elected really? I understand that the media should catch the terrible injustices made by politicians because I see them as fair game, but they would be imbeciles to not hide their mistakes.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Anthony is saying,politicians are our leaders and are equal as everyone else and should be investigated. Just because you have money or power does not mean you should have the right to special treatment. It's unfair to use or control the media to hide things from public just because you might not win the vote of voters. The media is already being controlled as it is. I am also not saying that every little person detail should be put out there, but the public should know, what kind of person they are putting in charge.
ReplyDeleteWe all know that politicians are not 100% truthful. It is a known fact that they are out there just to promote themselves. Arnold clearly has the contacts that can pull strings to assure. at this scandal did not get leaked. However, to be astounded by his censorship is pointless. We know this Is happening all around us and honestly I do not care what Arnold is doing.
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