Whitlock State of Play

I think that privacy is necessary for democracy to flourish because the United States is founded on allowing its citizens to have freedom. If America becomes Big Brother and watches everything that a person does then the foundation that the U.S. was built on will crumble. Politicians also deserve this same privacy. A scene in the movie where this made clear is when Collins is at the press conference and breaks down crying after he finds out that Sonya has died. Immediately the press has a field day and rumors begin to swirl that he has had an affair with this woman. Just because of this affair, his whole image is completely destroyed and now he will be a household name because he cheated, not because of the things that he was able to do for his country. He fought in the army and helped pass laws as a congressman but now he is only known as a cheater.

Collins deserves the privacy that any other citizen would have gotten. He was humiliated in front of the entire country because of the story that came out. Politicians should be judged based on the job that they perform, not their personal lives. I think that as long as a politician can come to work and perform well then the things that he does on his own time are his own business. If we were to pick out and peer into the lives of every single politician and show their personal secrets, then we probably wouldn't have any politicians left because no one is perfect and most of them probably have something to hide.