Recently the press has been on a rampage covering public figure sex scandals. From Anthony Weiner to John Edwards, political figures have been the center of national attention — and we just can’t get enough of it.

The media loves a political sex scandal story. Lies, betrayal, coverups, naughty photos and prostitutes — the stories are pristine products of yellow journalism. The media loves exaggerating and magnifying sex scandals, inappropriately diving into the personal lives of others for the sake of expanding their viewership.

Recent political figures like Anthony Weiner serve as victims for the media’s prying nature. Over the course of a few years, Weiner communicated with several woman and sent provocative photos, engaged in phone sex and sent sexual text messages. Just a few weeks ago, he was caught for his behavior and plastered on every news site in the country.

Yes, Weiner sent provocative photos of himself to other woman and engaged in dirty talk over the phone while still married, but does that make him any less capable of being an effective politician? His behavior could possibly reflect his ethical character, but unless you live under a rock, you know that all politicians lie — it’s merely part of the game.

As a politician, you simply don’t win unless you cheat a bit. For political figures, sex scandals are not even cheating; rather, they are a break from the game and represent the figure pursuing something personally satisfying. Instead of working for you, he is doing something for himself. If you want to awkwardly arrest yourself in your politicians’ lives and know who they are having sex with, that is your own business, but nonetheless it does not reflect their position as an effective politician.

Even though Anthony Weiner has resigned from the House of Representatives, most people believe he should have stayed. Marist College conducted a poll and recorded that 51 percent believed Anthony Weiner should stayed, while another poll by NY1-Marist discovered that 56 percent of registered voters in Weiner’s Congressional District wanted him to stay in Congress. The majority of voters said that although he might have acted unethically, what he did was not illegal. Despite the fact that the media inappropriately dives and destroys the images of political figures in sex scandals, people ultimately concur politics is demonstrating what one can do, not one’s moral character.

Not even President Barack Obama mirrors the “perfect” ethical figure. He has stated that in high school he drank alcohol, smoked weed and snorted cocaine. Despite what he called his “biggest moral failure,” this did not destroy his image or personify some unethical detail of him. As a teenager, it is what he did for fun — just like how political figures sometimes have unethical sex lives.

Imagine that you someway found out that your male professor was “inappropriately” texting a woman he met online, despite the fact he was married. You think to yourself: does this make him any less better of a professor? No, it does not. What professors do in their free time is what they do in their free time; it is personal and none of your business, and you have no right to know. You might be curious, and you might awkwardly wonder who your professor sleeps with at night, but it does not serve as a impediment to their job. When they walk into the classroom they have a duty, and that is to teach.

Luckily, professors have it easy because they are out of the public eye and do not appear on news sites across the world when they send sexually explicit texts. Therefore, judge someone on how effectively they pursue their job, not on their moral, ethical or social characteristics.