The Media vs. Foley

Over some of the break, I got to spend some time in the 22nd Congressional District of Florida visiting family. Around the dinner table, we spoke about the many issues facing the world. At the top of list of course, was the situation surrounding former Representative Mark Foley. Foley resigned from office last month after a sex-scandal leaked out linking Foley to teenage boys. The news spread like wildfire. Not only was it's speed stunning but its intensity as well. It was the hot topic of the media for weeks, airing all the time. I was wondering what made this such a big seller and I came up with a few suggestions that happen to fit into the Leighley model of media motivators. One is the unsurprising "profit-seeking" model in which the media jumped on this story like it was their new secret weapon ready for launch. The Foley scandal, like any sex scandal is very interesting and attracts hoards of viewers. That is the simple explanation. A more sophistocated look at the way the media handled the scandal is to look at it through the lens of the "Public Advocate" model. It would be one thing for a politician to engage in sexual misdemeanors, after all, he is a human like any other (why we place such a strong moral code on them is beyond me), but it would be quite another for a politician who has advocated for the protection of children and outwardly protests the mistreatment of them, and who has even authored bills to that end, to engage himself in the very atmosphere of pedophelia itself. This I believe could be another possible reason the media has propelled this story to the top headlines - it is outrageuous.