If Jack Ryan’s sealed divorce papers are legitimate objects for perusal (and you are prepared to force the issue in court), why not Kerry’s? Can’t you just wait for the Chicago Tribune to explain why they won’t pursue the story? Here’s the Trib’s specious justification for their witch-hunt:
This nation has a long tradition of open courts. There’s good reason for that. A court shrouded in secrecy is a court far more at risk to be corrupted or abused, a court that is more likely to favor those who are wealthy, powerful or politically connected.
That is why court files are open, unless a compelling interest tips the balance in favor of secrecy. Juvenile Court records are one common exception. Divorce records are not.
Last week, a California judge ruled that the Ryan divorce files should be unsealed to maintain that principle of openness.
“The public interest is for the fair, efficient and open operation of the court system,” Superior Court Judge Robert Schnider said. “The openness of court files must be maintained so that the public can … be assured that there is no favoritism shown to the rich and the powerful. Protection from embarrassment cannot be a basis for keeping from the public what is put in public courts.”
That standard of openness is all the more crucial when it comes to information regarding candidates for public office.
Now tell me how that doesn’t apply to Kerry. In some ways, the Kerry divorce may have more public ramifications, because Kerry was also granted an annulment, indicating that the marriage, strictly speaking, was never fully valid in the Catholic church. Why? Was this special treatment for a powerful pol? On the Trib’s reasoning, isn’t that worth investigating? On the privacy matter, Kerry’s marriage is also further in the past than Ryan’s. Kerry’s daughters are grown up, while Ryan’s son – forced to endure public airing of his parents’ marital conflicts – is still a kid. (Yes, we know how the Tribune feels about the sensibilities of a young, utterly innocent boy: screw him.) Let me be clear: I think Kerry should be left alone. But the press has absolutely no good reason to do so, now they have trashed any semblance of human privacy that we might still be entitled to. So we will now see the real ethics of the Chicago Tribune: that they are a partisan attack machine, shredding people’s privacy for their own political agenda.
The Dish 