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 John
Roberts’ “Michael Jackson” Moment
. . . And the Debasing Effects of Celebrity Culture
[Carol
Platt Liebau] 8/29/05
Not
long ago, in one of his trademark snarky columns, Washington
Post journalist Dana Milbank produced “Roberts’s Rules
of Decorum,” showcasing comments written by Supreme Court
nominee John Roberts in 1984. Milbank may have intended to
create the impression that Roberts was a prude; if so, he failed.
Instead, the sharp and pithy comments reveal a home truth:
Undesirable behavior that is legitimized by praise and recognition
becomes ever more commonplace. The resulting effect on American
society is pernicious.
Here’s
the background: Having lost an internal debate over whether
to offer a presidential award to Michael Jackson, Roberts objected
to draft remarks President Reagan was to offer at the ceremony
honoring Jackson – including an aside that 100 women
who work at the White House “all said their name is Billie
Jean.” Roberts wrote:
Contributor
Carol Platt Liebau - Senior
Columnist
Carol
Platt Liebau is editorial director and a senior member of tOR and CRO editorial
boards. She is an attorney, political analyst and commentator
based in San Marino, CA, and has appeared on the Fox News
Channel, MSNBC, CNN, Orange County News Channel, Cox Cable
and a variety of radio programs throughout the United States.
A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School,
Carol Platt Liebau also served as the first female managing
editor of the Harvard Law Review. Her web log can be found
at CarolLiebau.blogspot.com
[go to Liebau index] |
Cognoscenti will recognize the allusion to a character in one
of Mr. Jackson's popular ballads, a young lass who claims --
falsely, according to the oft-repeated refrain of the singer
-- that the singer is the father of her illegitimate child. This
may be someone's idea of presidential humor, but it certainly
is not mine.
Certainly such a view sounds quaint, almost prudish, in the
post-Clinton era. When a President has engaged in extramarital
sexual conduct at work, the prospect of one of his predecessors
making a veiled and off-hand allusion to promiscuous sex is hardly
shocking.
But Roberts’ concerns were well founded. People in the
arts seem always to have pushed the moral envelope – since
the days when Ingrid Bergmann’s extramarital love affair
with Roberto Rossellini scandalized America. Celebrity behavior
may well be much what it ever was. But the difference between
those days and these rests mainly in the way that the rest of
the culture treats it.
Today, a cursory examination
of the most popular celebrity magazines reveals a world where
the concept of sexual morality has completely
disappeared. It’s commonplace for unmarried actresses to
discuss their pregnancies – and, if we’re lucky,
the upcoming weddings that have been scheduled as a result. Couples
sleep together, break up, resume their affairs or go on to new
ones with nary a whisper of long-term commitment or fidelity.
The magazines report on all these activities with coverage as
breathless as it is flattering.
Celebrities can get
away with untraditional behavior. They’re “artists,” after
all – but more significantly, they have the money and the
status to be able to manage the difficulties that arise from
unconventional sexual choices (from being able to afford expensive
drugs to treat STD’s or hiring nannies to help balance
a one-parent household). Everyday people, on the whole, are not
quite so blessed – as too many unfortunate and naive young
women discover, after they are confronted with the consequences
of the sexual behavior that few, in the glamorous world that
they want to emulate, ever criticize.
Perhaps even at a
relatively young age, John Roberts had the maturity and the
wisdom to understand that when American society
places the imprimatur of approval on an unwholesome attitude,
it sends a loud and clear message to the young people who look
to the culture for guidance. And then the envelope is pushed
ever further – as we discover when comparing the innocent-by-contrast
Reagan era to this one. As Roberts wrote when opposing the bestowal
of any award on Michael Jackson, “The whole episode would,
in my view, be demeaning to the President.”
Demeaning to the President; debasing to the culture. tOR
Columnist
Carol Platt Liebau is a political analyst, commentator and
theOneRepublic / CaliforniaRepublic.org editorial
director based in San Marino, CA. Ms. Liebau also served
as the first female managing editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Her web log can be found at CarolLiebau.blogspot.com
copyright
2005
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