DSK and the case of the French wives
There's something that bothers me about the case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn (aka DSK), the French head of the International Monetary Fund, who is being investigated over whether a romantic affair may have led to him abusing his power. This raises the bigger issue of the possible conflict of interest involving the marriages of French politicians and journalists. DSK's wife, Anne Sinclair, is one of France's best-known journalists, and she has been writing a weekly column from Washington on life in the US.
Did she, however, mention her husband's affair in her article for the Journal du Dimanche, which ran three pages on the IMF scandal today? No, she did not. She did, however, mention it in her blog, in which she says that "this one night stand is now behind us." Should she not have been more up front about her relationship with DSK in the pages of the newspaper? Or should she be writing at all from Washington for risk of compromising her journalistic integrity while married to the head of the IMF? Surely there is a case to answer.
But then, in France, this does not seem to be much of an issue. The journalist Christine Ockrent continues to hold a top job in French television despite her partner, Bernard Kouchner, being the foreign minister. Beatrice Schonberg, who was a presenter with France's second channel and the wife of ecology minister Jean-Louis Borloo, has now left her post, however. Outside politics, there is the case of French journalist Estelle Denis and her boyfriend the France football coach Raymond Domenech who asked her to marry him, live on TV, after his team was knocked out of Euro 2008. Embarrassing, no?
Did she, however, mention her husband's affair in her article for the Journal du Dimanche, which ran three pages on the IMF scandal today? No, she did not. She did, however, mention it in her blog, in which she says that "this one night stand is now behind us." Should she not have been more up front about her relationship with DSK in the pages of the newspaper? Or should she be writing at all from Washington for risk of compromising her journalistic integrity while married to the head of the IMF? Surely there is a case to answer.
But then, in France, this does not seem to be much of an issue. The journalist Christine Ockrent continues to hold a top job in French television despite her partner, Bernard Kouchner, being the foreign minister. Beatrice Schonberg, who was a presenter with France's second channel and the wife of ecology minister Jean-Louis Borloo, has now left her post, however. Outside politics, there is the case of French journalist Estelle Denis and her boyfriend the France football coach Raymond Domenech who asked her to marry him, live on TV, after his team was knocked out of Euro 2008. Embarrassing, no?