Press: Sex and the Senior Senator

Are a candidate's private peccadilloes public property?

The mere mention of Edward Kennedy's social life is enough to make an editor's head throb. Little matter that he and his wife Joan have lived apart, at her behest, for two years. Every rumored dalliance poses a journalistic dilemma: Are a candidate's personal peccadilloes legitimate issues in a presidential campaign? The old rule — such indiscretions are off-limits as long as they do not interfere with official performance — has been breaking down in the wake of Watergate, Wayne Hays and Wilbur Mills. A new standard may...

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