Who gets to decide what you get to know?
Right after Missouri Governor Eric Greitens gave his brief, unfulfilling State of The State speech last week I turned on KMOV – just in time for Steve Savard to tease a story on the governor’s admitted infidelity.
Now, as a regular watcher of Show Me politics I can’t claim surprise at the revelations of adultery and hypocrisy by the secrecy obsessed, self-aggrandizing former SEAL. Even before he ran for office Eric Greitens spouted a massive ego. For me, many I know (including several Republicans) and countless others it was obvious that Missouri simply serves as a stepping stone towards the coronation of Eric The Great.
On Wall Street he and a few others – how many? – three hundred, four hundred, five hundred? – had become precisely that … Masters of the Universe.
Tom Wolfe, Bonfire of The Vanities
Like Wolfe’s Sherman McCoy, Eric The Great obviously felt entitled to a wife and a mistress. The rules imparted on common folk don’t apply to a Master of The Universe.
Time for a reality check. The important thing isn’t Eric acting like Eric, no, the past week’s fable opens a more critical question.
Per numerous reports, news of Greitens’ “encounter” had been common knowledge in media and other Republican circles for a long time. Note that the spurned husband had called Greitens out time and again on social media after his March 2016 divorce. In their own reporting, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other outlets admitted they’d been sitting on the story for a long while.
Obviously, a diligent reporter covering the 2016 governor race ought to have sniffed out that roll of tape and the exercise equipment. It was a poorly hidden story, definitely not a secret.
Did the media warn voters of such blatant hypocrisy by a major party candidate? No.
Did they challenge Greitens’ proclamation that he was the family values candidate? No.
Did they do their job and insure that all Missouri voters had a full and complete picture of the man who wanted to lead this state? No.
Oh, “It was a family matter,” some say. “This isn’t germane to the race.”
That may have been true – in 1918.
Remember how the media eagerly reported on Bill Clinton and his pet intern? Look back at reports of various members of the Missouri Legislature with staff and friends in recent years.
There is no right to privacy in the United States Constitution. That’s especially true of public servants and candidates for public office seeking to control government – and our lives.
Missouri media – and Republican Party leadership – failed voters. They did not pursue and share discernable facts about Eric Greitens, a candidate for governor.
The next question: what else do they know that they won’t tell us?
Submitted by Glenn Koenen, WCD Member