WANTED: Experienced blogger to take up residence adjacent to Random House CEO Markus Dohle to conduct consistent surveillance on the Dohle family and provide regular blog posts on their activities. Minimum six-month commitment. Experience as a voyeur or peeping tom a big plus! Will provide advance finances to locate and rent accommodations in Scarsdale, New York.
Concerned Women for America would never do this. Why? Because it’s wrong, and everyone on the left and the right would fully agree that it’s wrong. However, Sarah Palin’s stalker/unofficial biographer is doing the same thing, and Random House is paying him for his services. Why is it wrong (as I know everyone on the left would agree) for CWA to hire a blogger/stalker to do twenty-four hour surveillance on Markus Dohle (and his family) and right for Markus Dohle to pay someone to stalk Palin? The answer is, of course, one word: Ideology. Palin is a conservative and, therefore, fair game because there is a double-standard.
What if the public figure we are discussing was Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California)? The so-called “feminist” groups would go wild. If a conservative blogger moved in next door and monitored her comings and goings 24/7 (perhaps even listening in on her conversations) we would never hear the end of it. Of course, the left would be right to be upset because it’s WRONG!
Liberals may defend the “journalist” by saying Palin is a public figure, but aren’t even public figures entitled to some modicum of privacy? What about Palin’s children? Are they also public figures?
Mr. Dohle’s address, complete with picture and price of his home, took only seconds to find on the Internet. But given that he lives in a $3 million dollar home in a well-to-do neighborhood in a suburb of New York City, it would seem that his family values their space and privacy. I get that. However, I would think that Mr. Dohle would recognize that same need for others. I find it unconscionable that Random House is essentially paying a peeping tom, and I believe it crosses all sorts of ethical lines of journalism. A talented journalist doesn’t need to be a voyeur to write a biography.
Where are the feminists on this? I recommend the left carefully think through their reaction to Sarah Palin’s plight, otherwise, they may find their friends in similar circumstances.