When it comes to politicians and scandal in the UK it always used to be said that with the Conservatives it was sex while Labour fell prey to money. Here in the US the same holds largely true with
Republicans and the
Democratic parties,
Bill Clinton notwithstanding.
It's been a bad week for the Republicans and their allies this week, after one of America's most prominent anti-gay Christian activists was
photographed on holiday with a male prostitute (who was hired to carry his bags apparently.) So when a Florida blog broke a story
showing video of a Republican state senator perusing porn during an abortion debate of all things all hell broke loose.
Senator Mike Bennett's office quickly issued a statement explaining that he had been checking email during the debate and had opened "one disturbing and offensive transmission" which he promptly deleted.
"Anyone who has ever used email understands that you don't control all incoming messages, and that subject lines often are used to mislead people into opening messages that defy decency. This past week, I found out just how it feels when you're on the other side of one," said the statement.
From what Sleuth's seen of the video it seems Senator Bennett has a point - judging from the footage he downloads a file, the image opens, he studies it for a few seconds and then closes it and gets back to work. But the case raises a couple of important issues.
Firstly it shows that there are still far too many people out there who haven't realised that the age of video is here. If you're on a crowded train, at a conference hall or in an office you need to be very careful what you look at on your computer. You'd be amazed how many stories break at trade shows because someone is using a laptop during a keynote and doesn't think about who is looking over their shoulder.
Secondly the case highlights bad email policy. To open a file you need to trust the person sending it, and expect to receive it. While there are graduations of trust this Senator obviously hadn't set them high enough.
05 May 2010
