Its election season 2014 and the gubernatorial election in Pennsylvania is heating up. The republican incumbent Tom Corbett has been facing a lot of criticism and is currently trailing in the polls to democratic candidate Tom Wolff. Despite the importance of this race and the key issues surrounding it, Corbett is currently dealing with a “porn scandal”. Prior to becoming the governor Tom Corbett was the State Attorney General from 2005-2010. After Corbett left, Kathleen Kane, the new Attorney General, did a review of the Jerry Sandusky prosecution. In the review, her department found a string of emails sent by members of Corbett’s staff that contained pornography and other highly offensive material. Thus far Kane has only released the names of 8 individuals who worked under Corbett at the time that the emails where being sent. Already three of the officials currently working under Corbett have resigned (NBC News). While the Governor has not been implicated in any of these emails it, it has taken over his campaign in the last few weeks of election season.
With Tom Wolff ahead in the polls by 17 points, this scandal will not do much damage to Corbett’s already broken campaign but it is a great example of the role of negative media in campaigns. Today’s media holds the belief that news needs to carry with it a sense of sensationalism, “Because the negative often is surprising and unexpected, this type of news feeds in the news media’s addiction to information that grabs their audience” (Wayne). It is this fact that causes a story about racy emails being sent around an office to be at the forefront of an election. That is not to say that this story should not be looked into to but the electorate should not be better informed on this than they are of Corbett’s reform of the Philadelphia school system. “The Biggest problem, experts say: it is a distraction that devours precious campaign time” (Fitzgerald). What is very significant about media is that they set the agenda for campaigns, so although Corbett may want to spend his time talking about what his plans are for a second term, he is forced to spend time talking about this. Moreover, as he combats this issue he only hurts himself further, “Candidates are left with little alternative but to defend themselves against even the most reckless charges, thereby giving even more attention to those charges than they would otherwise merit” (Wayne). Negative media coverage like this only perpetuates itself, there is no way for a candidate to wiggle out of it so they then have to fire back at the other candidate and continuing the cycle.
As someone who is studying elections, it is comical to me that when you do a google news search on Governor Tom Corbett most of the articles will have porn somewhere in their title. It may seem harmless that the media chooses to tell the people only those stories that they want to hear but it is the job of the media to inform the people, and they have really dropped that ball on that. When the media keeps public focus on a issues like this that are so superfluous to the election, they inevitably leave out information that is vital. Negative media coverage is never going away but as it is now it makes our political campaigns into a entertainment industry.
"Porn Email Scandal Grips Pennsylvania Capitol - NBC News." NBC News. October 3, 2014. Accessed October 16, 2014.
Wayne, Stephen J. "News Media: Watch Dog or Pitbull?" In Is This Any Way to Run a Democratic Election?, 114-135. Fifth ed. Washington DC: CQ Press, 2014.
Fitzgerald, Thomas. "Porn Scandal Poses Risk for Corbett Campaign." Philly.com. October 13, 2014. Accessed October 16, 2014.
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