Recently Tiger Woods has been the focus of media scrutiny.  On November 25th, the National Enquirer reported that Woods had had an affair with nightclub owner Rachel Uchitel, which both she herself and Woods denied.  On December 1st, Us Weekly reported that Woods had had another affair with cocktail waitress Jaimee Grubbs from April 2007 to October 2009.  The same day, Life and Style produced another story about a woman who neither confirmed nor denied involvement in an affair with Woods.  Woods subsequently issued a vague apology, admitting "transgressions".  The story was picked up by the San Francisco Chronicle, the Christian Science Monitor, NBC, and other respectable, mainstream media outlets.  As of press time, "Tiger Woods scandal" is the third most popular search on Google.

On October 1st of this year, David Letterman announced on his program that he had had multiple affairs with coworkers for which he had become the victim of an extortion attempt: Letterman reported that on September 9th someone had left a package in his car full of materials to be used for a book and screenplay about Letterman's affairs.  The extortionist, Joe Halderman, a producer for CBS's 48 Hours, demanded to be paid 2 million dollars for his silence.  He was arrested in a subsequent sting operation.

Gennifer Flowers alleged during the 1992 Presidential campaign that she had had a twelve-year affair with then candidate Bill Clinton.  Flowers sold her story to Penthouse, Star, and others for 500,000 dollars.  The story was later picked up by 60 minutes and other respectable news outlets.  In 1999 Gennifer Flowers sued James Carville, George Stephanopoulos, and Hillary Clinton for defamation.  The suit was rejected by the Ninth Circuit Court in 2004 after six years of appeals.  In 2008, Flowers put answering machine recordings of messages from former President Clinton up for auction.

Rosa Lopez was O.J. Simpson's maid and an immigrant to the United States from El Salvidor.  After dropping out of school at age nine to help on her parents's farm, Lopez married young and gave birth to seven children, only two of whom survived to accompany her to the United States.  Before the O.J. Simpson murder trial, Lopez had worked as a maid in Los Angeles for thirty years.  During the trial, the media followed her everywhere, and she fled to New Mexico before her time to testify.  Simpson defense attornies and Judge Ito convinced her to go back to Los Angeles.  When the trial was over, she returned to El Salvador, claiming, "All these reporters have ruined my life."

Oliver Sipple was a decorated marine and Vietnam veteran who saved the life of Gerald Ford on September 22, 1975.  Sara Jane Moore, who was obsessed with Patty Hearst and the domestic terror group, the Symbionese Liberation Army, fired a revolver at President Ford as he exited the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco.  The shot ricocheted against the hotel door and struck a bystander, who survived.  Sipple was standing by and grabbed Moore's arm and dragged her to the ground before she could fire another shot.  The press portrayed Sipple as a hero.  

Sipple was openly gay but asked the media to keep his sexual orientation private due to the fact that his family and his employer were unaware.  Harvey Milk, on whose campaign Sipple had worked, contacted Herb Caen, a columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle, and told him to report on Sipple's sexual orientation to cast gays in a heroic light.  The San Francisco Chronicle published the story, as did six other newspapers.  Reporters thronged around Sipple in San Francisco and visited his staunch Baptist family's home in Detroit.  After learning their son was gay from reporters, Sipple's parents refused to speak to him.  Sipple subsequently filed an invasion of privacy suit against Caen and the seven newspapers, which continued until 1984, when the California State Court of Appeals held that Sipple had given up his right to privacy when he saved President Ford's life and that his sexual orientation had become news. 

Sipple had a difficult relationship with his parents for the rest of his short life.  Eventually, the relationship was reconciled, but never healed.  Sipple became an obese alcoholic and suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.  Friends reported that during his latter days, Sipple had expressed regret at saving the President's life.

These cases of lives ruined by the media, from Woods to Sipple, highlight the ongoing debate of whether or not the media must respect a public figure's right to privacy.  Indeed, there are major differences among these cases: Woods, Letterman, and Clinton decided to become public figures.  They were aware of the risks of prying reporters and eventually were victimized by tabloid journalism.  Lopez and Sipple made no such decision, but by accident of circumstance were thrown into the limelight.  Princess Diana's voluntary participation is public life is questionable, but the fact that she was literally killed by reporters is not.      

In Sipple's case, the California State Court of Appeals found there was no right to privacy for public figures; that is, whether intended or not, public figures give up their right to privacy when they become public figures.  It is apparently of a legitimate nature for the public to know everything about political leaders, athletes, and gay heros.

Nevertheless, one wonders whether this is even relevent.  The Woods scandals originated at the National Enquirer, Us Weekly, and Life and Style: newspapers that regularly print stories about alien babies and vampire attacks.  Is it ever justifyable to cite such sources?  Whereas Letterman mitigated the inevitable backlash of the would-be publication of his affairs by getting in the first word in a battle with an extortionist, Gennifer Flowers effectively extorted the American public during a competitive Presidential campaign.  There is a clear monetary interest to exposing the private lives of public figures; enough at least to invite a more skeptical reaction from mainstream media.  The media's treatment of Rosa Lopez and Oliver Sipple was just cruel prostitution. 

The media may not have a responsibility to respect the rights to privacy of public figures, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't.  After all, people have no obligation to follow the rules of etiquette in public, but that doesn't excuse someone from belching loudly during dinner at Dorsia.  As it is, the ethical questions raised by exposing individuals's private lives take a back-seat to the bottom line, and they will continue to.  For tabloids such as Star and the National Enquirer, this may be the only recourse.  However, the mainstream media's dignifying those rags by picking up their stories should elicit nothing but disgust in the American public.  It is a sign of widespread stupidity and moral bankruptcy that such stories find audiences.