The American Political Scandal by Dewberry David R.;

Author:Dewberry, David R.; [Dewberry, David R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Unlimited Model
Published: 2015-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Contemporary Issues and Scandals

People love talking about scandals. Whenever I mention my research on scandal, people inevitably raise a few smaller-scale and contemporary scandals in the news. Sometimes the conversation turns to “scandals” that would not be considered as such given this book’s definition. These could be nonscandals or pseudoscandals. Nonscandals, as addressed in chapter 1, are events that could be popularly called scandals but fail to meet the scholarly definition. For example, there may be no substantive attempt at a cover-up that is different from the alleged wrongdoing. Pseudoscandals, which may also be commonly called scandals, are often driven by cynicism and derision and lack any real transgression or cover-up.1 In the case of pseudoscandals, I always reply that not all mistakes and poor policy decisions are scandals. However, these conversations about nonscandals, pseudoscandals, and smaller and contemporary scandals have been fruitful.

Rather than simply dismissing points that can be made from congressional scandals, nonscandals (or pseudoscandals), and scandals from outside of politics, I include them here in the hopes that they can provide more insight into the patterns of American political scandal, the focus of this book. While the four critical cases are the yardstick by which all other scandals are measured, finer points of scandal can and should be addressed.

Accordingly, this chapter will examine the case of former U.S. representative Anthony Weiner, who was involved in a sexting scandal in which he sent lewd pictures of himself to a number of young women. Although it is not a presidential scandal, the case demonstrates the applicability of theory presented in earlier chapters to a wide range of political scandals.

The chapter then explores a number of other scandals and controversies to highlight variations on the themes presented in this book. They include the tabloid press in scandals, nuances of officialization, how cover-ups have gone digital, alternative means by which a scandal can conclude, and how self-regulation operates in nonpolitical scandals.

The Sexting Scandal

The political scandal begins in relative prosperity. The same could be said of Anthony Weiner’s scandal in which he sent sexually explicit photos of himself to women and then attempted to conceal his transgression. In mid- to late July 2010, Rep. Anthony Weiner’s private and professional life started getting serious, in a good way. He was married in a ceremony officiated over by none other than former president Bill Clinton. He gave an angry and impassioned one-and-a-half-minute speech on the importance of medical relief for the rescuers and victims of the September 11 attacks. The video of the speech quickly went viral. Due to his feisty firebrand style, which symbolized Democrats’ frustrations with congressional Republicans, he soon earned a seat at several popular political news and talk shows. The representative had become nationally known. While Teapot Dome, Watergate, Iran-Contra, and Clinton/Lewinsky all began in a period of relative public prosperity, Weiner’s sexting scandal began in a period of personal prosperity.

Unlike other scandals, the nature of the initial transgression was embarrassingly public. During a brief moment on Friday, May 27, 2011, a lewd photo of a man’s lower half clad in boxer briefs appeared on Rep.

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