Public vs. Private Figures

In the controversy with Rush Limbaugh and his vile statements re: Sandra Fluke, the right-wing pundits started ranting that why was there such an uproar over Rush’s statements when the left-wing didn’t have anything to say over Bill Maher’s comments re: Sarah Palin, or Keith Olbermann’s comments on his “Worst Persons in the World” segment of his program, for example.  The answer is very simple, and it is beyond me why no one, including any of the above, said enough about it to make the national news.  And that is the distinction between a private and a public person.

A person who becomes a public figure fits into the cliché of, “Person who sticks head above crowd, must expect rotten tomato in face”.  Since I am a retired elected public official who was embroiled in a really hot local issue, I had to tolerate a plethora of really, from my perspective, disgusting aspersions on my integrity.  I could either give the aspersions credibility by responding to them, or marginalize the people who cast said aspersions by ignoring them.  I chose the latter, though at times it was a struggle because my first instinct was to snarl back.  I had no legal recourse because there are no libel laws protecting public figures.

Sarah Palin and the myriad people Keith called Worst Persons were all public figures.  This is not about whether Maher and Olbermann should have said what they did.  They did not go after a private person who simply made a statement before a Congressional Committee.  Such a statement does not make someone a public person.  Ms. Fluke is a college student.  She is not an entertainer, elected or appointed official, or in any way a public figure.  And for her to say she “may” run for office in the future still does not make her a public figure.  Governors of states, candidates for public office, holders of public offices are all public figures, and as such are at the mercy of other public figures, such as TV talk show hosts.

I believe the uproar over Ms. Fluke came from the innate fair-mindedness of the American public.  We all recognized that Ms. Fluke was a college student, although a very brave one, who believed that it was imperative to explain that birth control pills are not always used for birth control per se.  Perhaps I missed something in Ms. Flukes’s testimony, which I watched, but when she was asked what qualified her to speak on this subject, her response was that she was a woman and she used birth control.  I never heard her state she used birth control for pregnancy prevention or for a medical condition.  Then she went on to state that she was speaking for a good friend who really needed birth control for a medical condition. 

It has been my long experience in this life that some of those men who are sexually insecure get their jollies harassing attractive young women.  Limbaugh’s comments re: Ms. Fluke said a great deal more about him than they did her.