Political scandals of the United States: Encyclopedia II - Political scandals of the United States - Contemporaneous notoriety versus historical research

Political scandals of the United States - Contemporaneous notoriety versus historical research

A distinction can be drawn, between scandals that were widely publicized close to the time, and information about improprieties that did not surface until some time later. For example, rumors that either President John F. Kennedy or his brother Robert F. Kennedy had a sexual affair with Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe did not become widespread until after all three were dead. Another example of delayed publicity is Thomas Jefferson's alleged relationship with Sally Hemings, which remained relatively unknown for nearly two centuries before it became widely publicized. In the more recent case of prominent white supremacist Senator Strom Thurmond, whose long political career had been built upon racial segregationism, it was not until after his death in 2003 (at age 100) that Essie Mae Washington-Williams came forward to reveal that she was the daughter of Strom Thurmond, who had impregnated her then-16-year-old mother, an African-American maid working for the Thurmond family in the 1920's.

On the contemporaneous end of the spectrum, Grover Cleveland's fathering of a child out of wedlock while he was Governor of New York was widely reported in his own day and became something of a campaign issue in the 1884 presidential election. Likewise, Cleveland's White House marriage to 21-year-old Frances Folsom raised some journalistic eyebrows at the time, as did rumors that he beat his wife.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Contemporaneous notoriety versus historical research", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki