Spitzer, McCain and American Idol

Sometimes Bad News Takes a Turn for the Better – But Not This Time

Today the New York Times is reporting New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has admitted his own “involvement in a prostitution ring” – after he had prosecuted several such rings. A couple of weeks ago, The Times reported a suspected inappropriate relationship between Sen. John McCain and a female lobbyist.

Both stories involved the possibility of illicit sexual activity by high-level politicians. The McCain story ended up eliciting a backlash of support for the senator, when the innuendoes on which the story was based proved to be particularly flimsy. So could Spitzer, too, end up somehow benefiting from his possibly tawdry association?

Probably not.

Why? Well, for a minute, let’s put aside the fact that one man denied the story while the other “admitted” it, and then there’s all that legality stuff.

At a basic level, it all comes down to how we initially react when we hear about things. Is our gut reaction “Hmm” or “Eww” or at least “What the heck were you thinking”? The difference between those reactions makes all the difference.

Let’s look at two other examples.

I don’t watch American Idol. (Yes, I know that puts me in a minority of about 14 Americans, most of us under the age or 4 or over the age of 100.)

Still I know the name of one of the contestants: David Hernandez. Why? Because allegations (revelations?) that he had worked as a stripper in a club mostly frequented by men made the major news outlets last week. The America Idol folks said Hernandez would not be booted out, and he’s made it to the finals. The supposedly negative reports of his bad behavior ending up making Hernandez more famous, without costing him his spot on the show. To stretch an analogy, Hernandez, like McCain, ended up benefiting from what could have been very negative media coverage.

His is a very different fate from that of Frenchie Davis, a contestant from an earlier American Idol contest. According to the news reports, Davis previously had appeared on a website for people interested in underage girls. She was kicked off the show.

In each case when we read something negative, we have to decide: Just interesting? Naughty? Illegal? Disgusting?

How each of us perceives the likely truth and degree of immorality of what is reported has a marked effect on our view of the participant. How we as the public in aggregate view these bits of “news” determines whether we briefly consider the information and move on or rise up with a call to “throw the rascal out!” Of course, some of us may care more about our Idol favorites than the people who are elected to serve and discipline us.

Plus, it is often true that, as my friend Dayna Steele said about Britney Spears’ mom’s plan to publish a book on parenting, “You can’t make this stuff up!”