Sorting through the Spitzer debacle

A few things…

Besides all the other things the former Attorney General and New York Governor was (powerful, fiercely determined, successful, etc.), he was a friend of the abortion movement and a threat to crisis pregnancy centers.

Eliot Spitzer is the man who personally introduced legislation in New York that, if passed, would make New York the most liberal state in the country when it comes to abortion. The so-called Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act (RHPPA), seeks, amongst other measures, to make a positive “right” to abortion in New York law. Critics of the Act have also pointed out that it could easily be interpreted as forcing all hospitals and doctors to perform abortions, with no conscience exemption. In the past number of months, the governor has strongly pushed to have the legislation passed, citing the passing of the Act as a top priority.

You’re not hearing about this from mainstream media.

Spitzer has had a long history of dislike for pro lifers and for crisis pregnancy centers.

In 1998, at the behest of NARAL, he attempted to shut down several of them by claming that “they give out false information” to women (without bothering to ascertain the false information given to women by Planned Parenthood who still refers to unborn babies as “blobs of cells” or the “product of conception”.

In fact, Spitzer was scheduled to meet with abortion movement leaders the day he wound up meeting the press.

Who among the elite media is doing a good job covering Spitzer’s fall from grace? The WSJ’s Kimberly Strassel, for one.

The fall of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer holds many lessons, and the press will surely be examining them in coming months. But don’t expect the press corps to delve into the biggest lesson of all — its own role as his enabler.

Journalists have spent the past two days asking how a man of Mr. Spitzer’s stature would allow himself to get involved in a prostitution ring. The answer, in my mind, is clear. The former New York attorney general never believed normal rules applied to him, and his view was validated time and again by an adoring press. “You play hard, you play rough, and hopefully you don’t get caught,” said Mr. Spitzer two years ago. He never did get caught, because most reporters were his accomplices.

This is very common in the world of journalism, unfortunately.

Journalism has many functions, but perhaps the most important is keeping tabs on public officials. That duty is even more vital concerning government positions that are subject to few other checks and balances. Chief among those is the prosecutor, who can use his awesome state power to punish, even destroy, private citizens.

Yet from the start, the press corps acted as an adjunct of Spitzer power, rather than a skeptic of it. Many journalists get into this business because they want to see wrongs righted. Mr. Spitzer portrayed himself as the moral avenger. He was the slayer of the big guy, the fat cat, the Wall Street titan — all allegedly on behalf of the little guy. The press ate it up, and came back for more…

What makes this more embarrassing for any self-respecting journalist is that Mr. Spitzer knew all this, and played the media like a Stradivarius. He knew what sort of storyline they’d be sympathetic to, and spun it.

They are reeling, those folks who played along for personal advantage. They want the story to go away. They’re still spinning it, but I think they don’t know any other way.

Instead, remarkably, they continue to defend him. Ms. [Brooke] Masters, his biographer, was on CNN the day Mr. Spitzer’s prostitution news broke, reassuring viewers that the governor really was a “lovely” guy. Other news reporters were reporting what a “tragedy” it was that such a leading light in the Democratic Party could come to such an ignoble end.

But kudos to CNN’s Campbell Brown for bringing on Gov. Mike Huckabee to talk about this, and politics. Huckabee took the high road, rose above the fray and focused his compassion on the Spitzer family. He talked about the fallen nature of all people, and the consequences of the abuse of power. And he ended the segment by expressing hope that Spitzer’s circle of friends – “and I don’t mean his political friends, but that circle of friends we all have from school days, from the past” – are there for him to lend support.

It was a moment of eloquence.