NPR Removes Examples of Scandals That Used to End Careers

A recent edit to an NPR article titled 'Political scandals once ended careers. Are they as powerful as they once were?' has removed several examples of past scandals that were once considered career-ending. The changes include the removal of references to Gary Hart's 1988 presidential campaign, Chris Lee's 2011 resignation from Congress after sending a shirtless photo to a woman on Craigslist, and the Watergate scandal that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation. The removed examples were replaced with new information about the current state of scandals in politics, including the controversies surrounding Texas Senate candidates Graham Platner and Ken Paxton. The changes suggest that NPR is shifting its focus from the historical significance of scandals to their current impact on politics. This shift may indicate a growing interest in exploring the ways in which the media and public perception of scandals have evolved over time.

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Political scandals once ended careers. Are they as powerful as they once were? +1521 -1161
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+ By Barbara Sprunt Graham Platner and Ken Paxton are facing controversies during their campaigns for Senate.
− Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Planet Money Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Political scandals once ended careers.
+ AFP via Getty Images and Getty Images/Collage by Emily Bogle/NPR hide caption Stay up to date with our Politics newsletter, sent weekly. In the race to the midterms this year, neither party is untouched by scandal. Texas Senate GOP hopeful Ken Paxton has faced legal battles and criminal investigations for years, along with allegations of infidelity, a public divorce and an impeachment by the Texas House. In Maine, Democrat Graham Platner has pushed past controversies including a report that he sent women sexually explicit messages while married and sported a tattoo of an emblem used by Nazi SS units; he says he did not know what it was when he got it and has since covered up the tattoo. In generations past, any one of those scandals could be enough to end a campaign or career.
− Are they as powerful as they once were?
+ Just ask Gary Hart, who was once seen as the frontrunner for Democrats' presidential nominee, before he dropped out after reports of an affair — or Republican Rep.
− There was a time when scandals were the death knell for political careers.
+ Chris Lee, who resigned the same day an article was published in 2011 detailing a shirtless photograph he sent to someone on Craigslist. Gary Hart was considered the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988.
− But today, they're far from being career enders.
+ After news broke of an affair, he pulled out of the race.
− Do scandals really not hold any power anymore?
+ He later jumped back in, but withdrew a second time.
− Politics Political scandals once ended careers.
+ Aaron E.
− Are they as powerful as they once were?
+ Tomlinson/AP hide caption "The fact politicians are more likely to survive scandals now is a condition of the world we live in," said Brandon Rottinghaus, political science professor at the University of Houston and author of Scandal: Why Politicians Survive Controversy in a Partisan Era. That scandals are no longer a surefire death knell for politicians is something he attributes to changing norms, hyperpolarization, partisan loyalty and deep distrust of the media. "The strategy for politicians facing scandal these days is — dig in, blame your opponents and hold on tight," Rottinghaus said. "The reason this works is because it leverages distrust of media and politicians, which allows for politicians to survive in ways they couldn't in the past because those elements weren't present," he said. A couple read the Daily Express newspaper in 1974, following the resignation of President Richard Nixon, after the Watergate scandal.
− June 8, 20264:44 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition By Barbara Sprunt Political scandals once ended careers.
+ Evening Standard/Getty Images/Hulton Archive hide caption Kevin Madden, a longtime Republican political strategist, was communications director to then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay in 2005, when DeLay was facing his own scandal.
− Are they as powerful as they once were?
+ DeLay was found guilty of funneling corporate money to Texas candidates; that conviction was later overturned. "It's like — how quaint," Madden said, comparing it to the scandals du jour.
− Listen &middot; 3:51 3:51 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5844547/nx-s1-9800988" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript There was a time when scandals were the death knell for political careers.
+ "It's almost like watching the silent era of film when you think about what was considered a scandal back then." He ascribes the change in large part to an upended media environment — recalling how there used to be a regimented and fairly uniform news diet for the public. "Scandals had an ability to endure in that type of information landscape," he said.
− But today, they're far from being career enders.
+ "If you look at the information landscape we're in now, which is hypersonic and supercharged due to digital platforms, we're in this constant, cluttered and fragmented media ecosystem." Put another way?
− Do scandals really not hold any power anymore?
+ "If Nixon had a Fox News or a social media army of Nixon devotees to mobilize on his behalf, it could have been a much different outcome," he said. Undergirding this is an environment where partisanship seems to outweigh almost everything. "These scandals become a political inkblot," Madden said.
− Sponsor Message A MARTÍNEZ, HOST: In the upcoming midterms, neither party is untouched by scandal.
+ "If you're on the left, you see it through the lens of somebody on the left.
− Texas GOP Senate hopeful Ken Paxton was impeached by the Texas House and endured allegations of infidelity.
+ If you're on the right, you see it through the lens of somebody on the right.
− In Maine, Democrat Graham Platner reportedly sent sexually explicit messages to women while married.
+ And that's where you decide whether it's something to either be outraged about or something you want to defend or dismiss." He notes there are always exceptions to the trend.
− So are scandals as powerful as they once were?
+ California Democrat Eric Swalwell resigned from Congress in April after backlash to allegations of sexual assault and misconduct — allegations he has denied.
− Here's NPR's Barbara Sprunt.
+ Texas Republican Tony Gonzales also resigned that month, in the midst of a congressional ethics investigation into his conduct and the possibility of a congressional expulsion vote over an affair with a former staffer that he admitted to.
− BARBARA SPRUNT, BYLINE: Political scandals are nothing new.
+ "The moral floor is descending to a certain extent," said Eben Burnham-Snyder, former longtime Democratic aide on the Hill and in the Obama administration. "But even within that, there still is the essential question of the sin and the sinner." But overall, he said, the political calculus has shifted.
− (SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE) UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: Richard Milhous Nixon resigned...
+ "Increasingly the electorate is more willing to forgive as long as they can ultimately reach heaven, which is electoral victory," he said. "I think after a lot of missteps by Democrats in how they handled certain scandals, what they've decided is the cost of enforcing norms is higher than the cost of winning with a flawed candidate." As an example of just how much things have changed, he points to the pressure former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken faced from fellow Democrats to resign after allegations of sexual misconduct.
− UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: Former Senator Gary Hart has quit the race...
+ A little more than eight years later, some of those same senators have been much less vocal about allegations against Platner.
− UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #3: President Clinton denies allegations...
+ "If Democrats could go back in time, would they act differently? And I think what you're seeing play out with Platner is yes — the answer to that is yes," Burnham-Snyder said.
− UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #4: Spitzer is resigning after a federal investigation...
+ Madden agreed.
− UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #5: A scandal on Capitol Hill involving Congressman Mark Foley. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #6: A scandal in the Interior Department.
+ "There's no doubt that somewhere Andrew Cuomo and Al Franken are sitting there and watching what happened to the governor of Virginia, for example," he said, referencing former Virginia Gov.
− The details are juicy. SPRUNT: There was a time when scandal was a death knell for a political career.
+ Ralph Northam, who refused calls to resign after a photo surfaced from his medical school yearbook depicting someone in blackface and the other in a Ku Klux Klan robe.
− Take Gary Hart in 1988, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
+ "All he did was wait it out and essentially let the news cycle wash out the scandal.
− After news broke of an affair, he dropped out of the race.
+ And there's no doubt that many [other politicians] thought, 'if I could go back, I would.'" Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Melania Trump and others listen as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks during the Alfred E.
− Or in 2011, when Chris Lee, a New York Republican congressman, resigned immediately after a story published of him sending a shirtless photo to someone on Craigslist.
+ Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner at Waldorf Astoria October 20, 2016 in New York.
− But increasingly, politicians aren't running away when faced with scandal. EBEN BURNHAM-SNYDER: A disqualifying political scandal is not dead, but it is on life support. SPRUNT: That's Eben Burnham-Snyder, former aide on the Hill and in the Obama administration.
+ The event took place nearly two weeks after a report revealed the existence of an Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump bragged about grabbing women's genitals.
− As an example of just how much things have changed, he points to the pressure former Senator Al Franken faced from fellow Democrats to resign after allegations of sexual misconduct.
+ Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images hide caption Rottinghaus said there's a temptation to credit the shifting scandal standards to President Trump, who forged ahead through the Access Hollywood scandal weeks before he was elected in 2016 and has continued to weather controversies throughout his two terms.
− BURNHAM-SNYDER: If Democrats could go back in time, would they act differently?
+ "Donald Trump didn't make scandals less important.
− And I think what you're seeing playing out with Platner is yes. SPRUNT: He says the calculus has shifted. BURNHAM-SNYDER: The electorate is more willing to forgive as long as they can ultimately reach heaven, which is electoral victory. SPRUNT: That doesn't mean, he says, there aren't outliers.
+ He was just living in a world where that was true," Rottinghaus said.
− And there are still some scandals that the public won't accept.
+ "He took advantage of the fact that we see this partisan schism, that we have this fragmentation in the media, and that people have very strong opinions politically about their team and about the other team.
− Kevin Madden, a longtime Republican political strategist, says this hyperpartisan environment means it's not always a question of right versus wrong, but us versus them.
+ He didn't invent these things, but he did to some degree perfect them." Trump's playbook to survive scandals — blaming opponents and not backing down — is now one that politicians routinely try to replicate.
− KEVIN MADDEN: If you are on the left, you see it through the lens of somebody on the left.
+ Trump is arguably the most successful at fundraising off of his controversies as well.
− And if you're on the right, you see it through the lens of somebody on the right. And that's where you decide whether or not it's something to either be outraged about or if it's something that you now want to defend or dismiss.
+ He and the GOP raised nearly $53 million in the first day after Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts in a criminal hush money trial.
− SPRUNT: He says the potency of scandals has weakened because of a hypercharged, fragmented media landscape. MADDEN: If Nixon had a Fox News or he had a social media army of Nixon devotees to mobilize in his behalf, it could've been a much different outcome. SPRUNT: And he says the reaction from politicians facing scandal has changed dramatically. MADDEN: If you wait long enough, there'll be a new shift of attention elsewhere in the news cycle.
+ "Politicians can use scandals as a badge of honor to say that they've been in the fight, and the reason that they've been caught in the scandal is that they've been fighting for the people, for their base," Rottinghaus said.
− You can ultimately not necessarily flourish, but you will survive.
+ "A lot of politicians will simply frame a scandal as a partisan attack or as misinformation or as a witch hunt." Sound familiar?
− SPRUNT: Brandon Rottinghaus is a professor of political science at the University of Houston. He says, these days, some politicians facing scandal are actually leaning in.
+ In Texas, Paxton described his impeachment as a "politically motivated sham" and has framed his Senate race as a fight against the media and political establishment.
− BRANDON ROTTINGHAUS: A lot of politicians will simply frame a scandal as a partisan attack or as misinformation or as a witch hunt that helps rally their base.
+ In an interview with Maine Public Radio, Platner cast his ever-unfolding controversies as a result of fighting against the establishment.
− SPRUNT: The new strategy? ROTTINGHAUS: Dig in, blame your opponents and hold on tight. SPRUNT: It's a playbook he says was perfected by President Trump. ROTTINGHAUS: He took advantage of the fact that we see this partisan schism, that we have this fragmentation in the media and that people have very strong opinions politically about their team and about the other team.
+ "We knew that the machine itself ...
− He didn't invent these things, but he did to some degree perfect them.
+ the whole political pundit class combined with the political establishment itself was going to fight us tooth and nail, because what we are building here is something substantial," Platner said.
− SPRUNT: He says scandals often serve an important role. Think of them like canaries in the coal mine.
+ Rottinghaus argues scandals serve an important role in the political system.
− ROTTINGHAUS: They tell us there's something wrong with a politician, with a rule, with a system. Those are things we can fix.
+ "There's a lot of evidence that if you weaken the power of scandals, you reduce the institutional accountability that we need in democracy to make it function properly," he said.
− SPRUNT: But now?
+ Watergate exposed abuses of executive power and ultimately, Congress increased oversight, made government records more accessible and strengthened rules around campaign finance disclosure.
− ROTTINGHAUS: The canaries have flown away and the cage is open.
+ The Teapot Dome scandal in the 1920's led to stricter congressional oversight of federal leasing.
− SPRUNT: It's up to the public to decide whether to keep it that way.
+ The Pentagon Papers scandal helped lead Congress to pass the War Powers Resolution.
− Barbara Sprunt, NPR News, Washington. (SOUNDBITE OF MOLLY LEWIS AND THEE SACRED SOULS' "CRUSHED VELVET") Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR.
+ "Scandal is like a canary in the coal mine.
− All rights reserved.
+ They tell us there's something wrong with a politician, with a rule, with a system.
− Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
+ Those are things we can fix," Rottinghaus said.
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+ "Now, the canaries have flown away and the cage is open." Sponsor Message Become an NPR sponsor