Fair Play

It has long been said that turnabout is fair play.
But don’t try telling that to Richard Mellon Scaife.
Scaife, billionaire heir to the Mellon oil and banking fortune, made quite a name for himself during the presidency of Bill Clinton.
The somewhat reclusive and from all accounts prickly tycoon was alleged to have given a lot of money to organizations dedicated to digging up all sorts of dirt—whether real or imagined didn’t seem to matter—on Clinton and his wife, Hillary.
As publisher of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and an investor in NewsMax.com, Scaife hasn’t been shy about seeing his conservative political views make their way into print.
Now, a rival newspaper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is putting Scaife in the spotlight in a way he doesn’t relish.
Scaife wanted details of his divorce from Margaret Richie Battle Scaife kept private. A judge obligingly had the records sealed.
But the Post-Gazette decided that since Scaife had in some ways made himself a public figure, he should be willing to take what his media interests have so often dished out.
So they started to look for the divorce records. And thanks to an error by Allegheny County, they found them posted for public view on a county office Website.
Well, the paper found them there and published details of the divorce.
Scaife took them to court.
Last week, a judge ruled the Post-Gazette could retain and publish material from the divorce records.
The judge ruled the newspaper was just doing its job and could not be held liable for using material it obtained legally and that Scaife’s wrath should be directed at the county office that made the records available.
Many on both sides of the political spectrum who dislike the media for its intrusion into private lives of others are probably cheering the ruling.
And well they should. The people who buy the ink or own the TV cameras should not be immune from the same scrutiny that any other public or private citizen would face in similar circumstances.
As a publisher, Scaife should support Freedom of the Press.
Even when it comes back to bite him.

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