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Is Palin fairly suffering the cost of alleged ethical lapses?
By Lauren | July 9, 2009
The press has been agog with the news that Alaska Governor and former Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has decided to step down before the end of her gubernatorial term. Speculation concerning her motives and future intentions has run wild. Some think she’s stepping down to position herself as a candidate in the 2012 Presidential election, others argue that she’s been driven out of office by vicious criticism, and still another group wonders if she’s resigning to avoid pending ethics investigations. (Thus far there have been no rumors that she’s angling for a spot on Saturday Night Live, but stay tuned …)
Governor Palin’s motivation may very well have been money. Her attorney announced in an open letter that she’s had to spend over $500,000 in legal fees to defend herself against the aforementioned ethics investigations. Again, public opinion swings widely on the validity of the ethics complaints brought against the governor, and we’ll presumably learn in time whether she’s acted improperly or not. But her attorney’s statement raises an important issue that frequently goes unacknowledged as public figures are raked over the coals in the “shame and blame game” that has become so prevalent in the blogosphere.
Accusations of misconduct impose an inescapable cost. Under our current legal system, individuals who are charged with malfeasance almost always have to pay hefty fees to lawyers to tell their side of the story. Even if the accused individual is ultimately found to have done nothing wrong, he or she has had to pay a tremendous financial price and endure the emotional strain of being attacked, sometimes for months or years, in the court of public opinion. And if the individual is ultimately found to have acted improperly, that cost is piled onto to whatever additional penalties the judicial system imposes.
Regardless of your politics, I believe it’s time for America to examine its presumption that any public figure, be it a politician, an entertainer, or an athlete, is fair game for worldwide humiliation if he or she is proven to be a fallible human being. After all, who among us isn’t? Surely, we can all find something more entertaining to do than watch our public heroes tumble.
Topics: Personal Ethics, Social Ethics, ethics |
July 9th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
The ethical implications of what Sarah Palin had done were some of my first impressions on hearing the news. The choice that she made reminds me of a similar choice made by the governor of South Carolina: both left their states more or less in the lurch to pursue their own personal goals. A public office is a great responsibility; by not shouldering that responsibility, I believe Palin has proven herself unequal to shouldering the one she apparently left this one to pursue.
August 13th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
[...] presents Is Palin fairly suffering the cost of alleged ethical lapses? posted at The Business Ethics Blog, saying, “Guilty or not, the damage to Sarah Palin’s [...]