Sharon Smith: Fair and Balanced

Posted on December 14, 2003 in Folly Watch

Leave it to the Sun to be the only newspaper online (that I have seen) to have put up the photo that was stolen from her computer during a children’s party. To prove to a friend who reads this blog that this isn’t a fabrication of the yellow press, I offer this link from the San Francisco Chronicle and this from Ananova, neither of which carry the photo.

Now, on one hand, one has to wonder about someone who leaves a computer unsecured during a children’s party at her house. One has to wonder about a couple that takes the photos in the first place, not considering the fact that these things can be found and distributed with ease.

On the other hand, I grant Sharon Smith these points:

“I’m disappointed that the stories seem to focus on what the pictures are instead of that it was a theft from my home,” Smith said. “Our family is the ones who are the victims here.”

The picture was taken at a private time with her husband and was meant to remain private, the mayor said Monday.

“My husband asked for a specific picture because he was very proud of the fact that I was mayor and that was what it was intended for.

“No disgrace to the office was intended,” she said. “We made sure that we were not infringing on anyone else. It was a private moment and that’s all it was.”

There are the expected calls for her resignation by those who say that it represents a “catastrophic error in judgment”. I disagree. Resigning over the distribution of this photo is no more called for than resigning because of a particularly bad photo kissing a baby or an editorial cartoon which skewers the target aptly. Smith has been elected as Mayor of Houston, British Columbia. She should be allowed to serve out her term in recognition of the competent service that she has shown in the past. The voters may turn her out or not next election time if she chooses to run.