ABSTRACT
Cassandra-like complaints about the press are the rule, not the exception. Too many events are called crises when they are really just snarls. By the mid-80s, the American news media, with all their faults, not only were the freest, most varied and most informative in the world but they were better than they had ever been. But by 1986, in politics charges by the press against public figures mushroomed to include everything from adultery and pot to plagiarism, wedding dates and the behavior of candidates' spouses. Laws of privacy in the United States are vague and unsettled. In years past, reporters and editors had easy cliches to answer the question of how to deal with the private lives of public figures. So a political Who's Who of sometime liars, adulterers, alcoholics and ailing public figures were immune to exposure until after they died or were so conspicuous in their failings that reporting them was unavoidable.
