Bush’s family deserves privacy
Media should respect personal lives of president’s daughters

by James Zwilling

Last week, the Associated Press, the TCU Daily Skiff and nearly every other news agency around the United States reported that William Ashe Bridges, TCU freshmen and friend of first daughter Jenna Bush, was released to a man believed to be a Secret Service agent after a brief holiday at the county jail.

According to the reports, Bush and Bridges both attended an off-campus party Feb. 25 where Bridges was arrested and cited for public intoxication and underage possession of alcohol.

Four days later, when the story first broke, newspapers and television stations alike had the first glimpse into the life of the first family’s 19-year-old twin daughters.

The one who chose to attend the University of Texas, who wanted to stay close to home, who wanted to be able to spend time with her old high school friends like Bridges, is now all over the news.

Unfortunately, as the granddaughters of a former president and the daughters of the current president, the Bush twins face what Chelsea Clinton somewhat managed to avoid: constant scrutiny.

Why?

Well, no disrespect to Clinton, but she wasn’t exactly a prom queen from Arkansas. The Bush girls, however, have already been portrayed in the media as consistent with the Texas beauty queen image.

Therefore, there is the chance that these two individuals may turn out to be a much better story to reporters than that of Chelsea and her Stanford cronies.

These girls want as much normalcy in their lives as possible, but the media is constantly hounding them.

So, the instant a friend of Bush gets into a little trouble and she comes to his rescue, she was immediately thrust into the spotlight.

The media began asking all the questions they felt needed to be answered.

Was she drinking? Did the Secret Service protect her from charges? Did the Secret Service break Bridges out of jail?

The truth is, it shouldn’t matter.

Probably one of the most important qualities people look for in friends is finding someone they can trust and count on when they are in trouble. Apparently, Bridges has found that in Bush.

So instead of trying to find out exactly what was going on, the media should back off and trust that Bridges and everybody else involved will have learned their lesson.

Now, the Bush twins will probably be even more apprehensive than ever before to try and live out their college years in normalcy.

The Bush daughters never asked their father to become president, but they shouldn’t be upset that he is. When things like this happen, they must certainly wish that they weren’t in the spotlight.

Just imagine what it would be like if you had a Secret Service agent following your every move. Would you have wanted a baby-sitter for everything that you did while you were a freshmen? Probably not.

Would you want the media to know if you were bailing a friend out of jail? Probably not.

Is it fair that the president’s children cannot escape the public eye? Absolutely not.

It’s time for Americans to respect the first family. There was a day when the media held a high enough respect for the president that when FDR asked that his wheelchair not be photographed, his wishes were respected.

It’s time that the media return a little common courtesy to the first family. George W. Bush was elected president of this country and therefore knows and accepts the fact that his life will be very public, but that doesn’t mean anybody has the right to invade the privacy of his children.

Opinion Editor James Zwilling is a sophomore news-editorial major from Phoenix.
He can be reached at (j.g.zwilling@student.tcu.edu).

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