Radiolab - I Don't Have To Answer That — Gary Hart, 80's journalism, privacy of politicians

@ongarrett thanks for posting this! I listened over the weekend and really enjoyed it. Such an interesting story talking about how the sex lives of politicians used to be totally off the record and the story that precipitated their rise into being a relevant topic to be covered by journalists.

Roosevelt, Kennedy, Eisenhower … they all got a pass. But today we peer back at the moment when poking into the private lives of political figures became standard practice. In 1987, Gary Hart was a young charismatic Democrat, poised to win his party’s nomination and possibly the presidency. Many of us know the story of what happened next, and even if you don’t, it’s a familiar tale. But at the time, politicians and political reporters found themselves in uncharted territory. With help from author Matt Bai, we look at how the events of that May shaped the way we cover politics, and expanded our sense of what's appropriate when it comes to judging a candidate.

Great Episode. My favorite take-a-ways: - Reporters tougher on politicians in a post-Watergate news community - Hart's political popularity as a liberal in the '80s America - "Hart was the first to walk into this vortex of Social Forces" @mattbai