Case study#1: Carrie Prejean vs John Edwards

John Edwards is an American politician who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008.

Here is the issues about John Edwards.



John Edwards has a love child. The alleged mistress who was first reported was pregnant and went into hiding, and later gave birth. And this is a photo of Edwards and baby, from the National Enquirer.



At first he was deny the issue but finally he abandoned his long denial that he had fathered a child during an affair with a campaign aide and admitted that he is the father of the almost 2-year-old girl. This is the most striking element of the story.


However media remains this one of the biggest scandals as non-coverage and it was left in the dark about the John Edwards scandal.


Carrie prejean is an American model, and former Miss California USA 2009, and Miss USA 2009 first runner-up. She received nationwide attention over her answer to a question about same-sex marriage during the 2009 Miss USA pageant.
Prejean was asked by pageant judge Perez Hilton whether she believed every U.S. state should legalize same-sex marriage. Here is her responded that find from Google.

“ Well I think it's great that Americans are able to choose one way or the other. We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And, you know what, in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense to anybody out there. But that’s how I was raised and I believe that it should be between a man and a woman.”
The media attention intensified after Hilton posted a video on his website, where he insulted Carrie prejean and said he believed her answer was the worst in pageant history.


My opinion:
In regards to John Edwards’s scandal, the mainstream media has apparently shown reluctance to report the story despite the widespread coverage of the scandal by tabloids - National Enquirer and on blogosphere. The reason why the John Edwards’s scandal was kept out of press for nine months was that he was a Democratic candidate which the Democratic Party is the major political party in the United States. For that specific reason, he receives political favoritism and biasness from the vast majority of American mainstream media such as the newspapers, radio and TV news organizations as the media is in pay of the government. Therefore, there is a conspiracy of silence by the mainstream media in fear of destroying the political future of John Edwards.
On the other hand, Carrie Prejean’s scandal was spread like wildfire and receives explosive number of reports across all media channels. Unlike John Edwards, Carrie Prejean is seen as a soft easy target by the media which it is not afraid of and one who has no one to backup for. The media therefore uses her to create and sell news.
From this issue, I felt that even though the media may have own agenda, it should maintain its righteousness. It should not put in personal views into the news coverage; moreover personal relationship should not override the decision to publish the news. It must be in a fair stand to judge everyone regardless of their status or interrelationship.

5 sources.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Edwards
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Prejean
http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=1006
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2378214/carrie_prejean_sex_tape_video_carrie.html?cat=7
http://bumpshack.com/2009/04/20/miss-california-usa-carrie-prejean-controversy-photos-video/