Si les population et les médias français sont généralement plus "respectueux" de la vie privée des hommes et des femmes en politique, la cas de DSK devrait changer la donne selon l'auteur de cet article dans le NY Times. Combien d'hommes (très peu de femmes encore) ont perdu leur avenir politique aux États-Unis parce qu'on leur trouvait un squelette dans le placard? Chaque cas devrait être étudié séparément, mais il y a fort à parier qu'en France un certain nombre d'entre eux (parfois prometteurs) auraient continuer leur carrière.
"When, for example, François Mitterrand was asked by a journalist during his presidency whether it was true that he had a daughter outside his marriage, he replied: “Yes, it’s true. And so what? It’s none of the public’s business.”
The French have been complicit in accepting this sort of secret-keeping: they do not enjoy ugly revelations that could tear apart the social fabric. What shocked them more than the existence of Mr. Mitterrand’s mistress and their daughter was the revelation after his death that the French state had financially supported them and even provided police protection.
Now, the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn is once again challenging the assumption that the private lives of the rich, famous and powerful are off limits to public scrutiny. That the most serious accusation against Mr. Strauss-Kahn is attempted rape, and not just an indiscretion involving a consensual sexual relationship, only adds to a sense on the part of some people in France that the curtain of privacy needs to be lifted.
“We felt that we were superior to the Americans and the British by upholding the principle of protecting private life,” Pierre Haski, one of France’s leading political commentators and co-founder of the political Web site Rue89, said in an interview. “But we journalists haven’t done our job properly. We were used and abused in keeping secrets. We need to define our role in a more aggressive way — and say that not everything private is private.”
Mr. Haski said he had been wrong to withhold information in the past about French political figures that could have compromised their ability to carry out their duties.
“I knew that when Roland Dumas was foreign minister, he was romantically involved with the daughter of Syria’s defense minister,” he said. “I didn’t write it because it was a matter of his ‘private life.’ I was wrong. It had an impact on France’s foreign policy.”"
La suite:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/world/europe/17secrecy.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha22
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