The King's Speech: A Personal Struggle Publicized By Media

I recently saw the film "The King's Speech," which is an excellent movie that I highly recommend if you have not seen it. The premise of the film is that the younger son of the King George V of England has a stutter. After the King falls ill and dies, the throne eventually falls upon his son "Bertie." Bertie as King George VI has to make numerous speeches in person and on the radio and because of his stutter, this task scares, embarrasses, and frustrates him tremendously.

Although there is a lot to discuss about this movie, one point I'd like to focus on is the message of the media interfering with the personal lives of politicians. Before radio existed and became popular, the King would have had to speak to his people, but most people would not be hearing him in person, thus a secret of stuttering would be a lot less known to the population. At the time that the movie is set in, the King would address the nation at least every Christmas on the radio, and thus the King could not escape his fate of everyone knowing his weakness.

I think this example is the early stage of the phenomenon of media exposing personal struggles and relationships of people in political power. How often do we hear about a mayor, or governor, or congressman's rendezvous with another woman? Instead of focusing on the issues of the time, all we heard about Sarah Palin was about her daughter's pregnancy and her home life! Yes, some of these events do have significance to us, but many times they just expose something personal about a political figure and it does not affect their political views or capability to lead a city, state, or country.

The media does this because it sells. People like gossip. According to Jewish law, these types of stories would no doubt be considered Loshon Hara and Motzei Shem Ra. Perhaps I am tinted by my halachic perspective, but shouldn't there be a standard to leave people alone with their personal struggles and not publicize them to the world?