How about scrutinizing the trees, and not the acorns?

Two GOP Congressmen are apologizing for the offensive tweets of their teenage sons, as well they should. But to what extent do the homophobic, racist and otherwise vile social network comment of a couple of high school students with famous fathers tell us anything about their legislator parents? Are such communications newsworthy? Should the kids be exposed to “Gotchas!” as if they were the elected officials, not their dads, and are their indiscretions legitimate clubs for political and journalistic foes to beat their fathers with?

I think these are difficult ethics questions, and I don’t much care for any of them.  Let’s examine the ethical conduct of some of the participants in this icky drama:

• Buzzfeed: The bad boy website released the offensive tweets of Joey Heck, 16-year-old son of Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev), and similarly aged Tanner Flake, son of Republican Congressman Jeff Flake of Arizona. Verdict: Unfair and sleazy, but then, that’s Buzzfeed. Trolling the social networking garbage created by teenagers to embarrass their parents is despicable, no matter who the parents are. The communications are impossible to mine for any useful or reliable information about anything, including the two boys’ real sentiments, just as the slurs used by the four boys in Steven King’s “Stand By Me” were not fair representations of their character. Kids posture, say outrageous things to be outrageous, play with racism and awful language recklessly and thoughtlessly, and I say this as father of a teen-aged boy whose values are impressive and genuine, and whose social networking comments are occasionally disgusting. It’s difficult enough to have a father who is under public scrutiny, without having websites target you, making you the target of national ridicule and hate in the process. Now, of course, conservative sites—I’m sure Breitbart is on the case—will be searching for similar posts from the children of Democrats. Great.

• The “legitimate” news sites, like Slate: Just because Buzzfeed published it doesn’t mean that Slate should give its miserable conduct legitimacy. In an orgy of confirmation bias, Slate writer Jeremy Stahl used the tweets of these two boys as proof that Republicans court racists and raise their kids to be bigoted extremists…because, you see, that’s what he wants to believe. Stahl marks himself as untrustworthy early on, when he intentionally substitutes opposition to immigrants, which is both rare and wrong, for opposition to illegal immigration, which is important and right. I’m tired of seeing this blatant straw man ploy, popular as it is among liberal ( or dumb) journalists, and can’t take seriously anything written by a pundit who stoops to it.

Stahl is a bigot to whom a few idiotic teenage tweets justify such commentary as  “There is a not insignificant portion of the GOP electorate that exists as a fever swamp of racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-immigrant hatred, and bigotry of all sorts;”  “Obviously not all Republican politicians and voters, or not even a majority of them, are racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-immigrant bigots;” “To read Tanner Flake and Joey Heck’s online posts is to see the powerful strain of bigotry that exists within a certain sector of conservative politics;” and “If all of your friends are Republicans and even a small subgroup of Republicans are racist, homophobic bigots, then you’re more likely to associate with racist, homophobic bigots and become one yourself than if you’re hanging out with liberal, crunchy kids.”  His piece is also an orgy of guilt by association.

• The two kids. Irresponsible fools, of course—but  they are teenaged boys, and it goes with the territory. Yes: dumb to write, say or think such things anywhere. Yes: beyond dumb to put them out in public where unethical media sharks like Buzzfeed are cruising. Yes: disrespectful of their fathers, their constituencies and the Congress of the United States. And yes, I seem to recall seeing some photographs of a young Barack Obama dressed like a pimp and smoking reefer. These children should not be held up to harsh judgments—except by their parents—for acting like their peers, testing limits and margins, and being foolish and offensive. They are victims in this fiasco.

• Rep. Flake and Heck. They have, as I said, apologized for their sons. Is that enough? I have to say that I think less of both of them as a result of this episode, despite everything I wrote above. Is that unfair? Probably.  Nonetheless, the fact that an elected official has raised a young man who expresses himself in such an offensive and bigoted manner cannot help but make me wonder. How far did these acorns fall from the trees? Is this an example of the results of absentee parenting, or something worse? It is unfair, but I can’t ignore it.

Which is why it’s so unfair.

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Sources: Daily News 1, 2, Slate, Buzzfeed