All The Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid
by Matt Bai
Buy on AmazonYahoo'snational political columnist and the former chief political correspondent for"The New York Times Magazine"brilliantly revisits the Gary Hart affair and looks at how it changed forever the intersection of American media and politics. In 1987, Gary Hart-articulate, dashing, refreshingly progressive-seemed a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination for president and led George H. W. Bush comfortably in the polls. And then: rumors of marital infidelity, an indelible photo of Hart and a model snapped near a fatefully named yacht ("Monkey Business"), and it all came crashing down in a blaze of flashbulbs, the birth of 24-hour news cycles, tabloid speculation, and late-night farce.…
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"Twenty-four-hour cable; infinite news sources online; tweets and YouTube. It’s hard to remember a time when the political cycle was slower and more deliberate, and when the voter wasn’t exposed to every single twitch of the candidate. When did it all change? According to Matt Bai, it changed with Gary Hart in 1987. You think you know it all: Donna Rice, Monkey Business, Hart taunting the press. You don’t. The combustible mix of new technology and politics was birthed in this presidential campaign, and there was no turning back."
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