Hart’s Monkey Business

POLITICAL SCANDAL
Throughout Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, the rules for press coverage remained simple: Private behavior of public figures remained private unless it had a direct bearing on public responsibilities. Reporters knew that Roosevelt had a close relationship with Princess Martha of Norway but made only oblique mentions. And they rarely photographed the president in a wheelchair. During John F. Kennedy’s campaign, reporters and editors did not cover Kennedy’s private life, including rumors of extramarital affairs. It was a far cry from today’s “anything goes” journalism.

Politicians’ private lives were never the same after 1988 Democratic candidate Gary Hart told reporters asking about womanizing: “If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’d be very bored.” In 1987, The Miami Herald reported that Hart spent the night with a young woman. Hart quit the race, saying the system “reduces the press of this nation to hunters and presidential candidates to being hunted.” A month later, the National Enquirer ran a photo of Hart with Donna Rice on a boat called “Monkey Business.”