Who Do You Think You Are, Congressman?

I believe it was James Carville who described Washington as “Hollywood for Ugly People” and James Carville, if anybody, would know.  Many other politicians have joked about the similarity between politics and show business.  Ronald Reagan certainly made good use of his acting skills in his role as President.

Gary Miller, a Man With Something to Hide

But it’s one thing to joke about it, and another thing to start to believe the hype.  Politicians are not actors.  Congress is not a TV series.  Apparently, congressman Gary Miller (R-Ca) doesn’t seem to understand that.

Actors get stalked by paparazzi.  They stake out their homes, hiding in the bushes.  They follow them to their vacation sites.  They know the routes their children take to school, and they love pictures of children.  Personally, I’m a big advocate of freedom of the press and even, to some extent, sympathize with the paparazzi.  It’s their job.  If the stars don’t want to be photographed, they can stop being famous and move to a ranch in Idaho.  Paparazzi will follow somebody to the Bahamas, but they won’t usually go to Idaho.  Idaho is boring.

But, I digress.  When an actor gets agressive with the paparazzi, throws their camera to the ground and gives them a swift knee-punch to the nuts, the public cheers.  They are defending their privacy.  They are defending their families.  The public laps it up.  Especially if there are photographs.

Politicians deserve no such sympathy.  They work for the people.  They are expected to answer reporters questions.  And the question this reporter was asking wasn’t out of line at all.  It wasn’t about his family, or a sex scandal, or anything even vaguely off limits.  It was about how he would vote on ending the government shutdown.  It is a reporters job to ask questions like  that, and it is a congresspersons job to answer them.

Not to put their hands over the lens as if they are some kind  of Hollywood big shot and the reporter is a paparazzi scumbag.

Come to think of it, there’s one other class of people who routinely treat photographers like that.  Criminals.