Netflix's House of Cards centers around the inappropriate relationship between a journalist and her government source. They're not the first of their kind to throw all sense aside and pay the price for it.
Here's a trailer for "House of Cards", Netflix's first original series. All 13 episodes of Season 1 are now available
Based off of a British show of the same name, it stars Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood, the Majority Whip for the U.S. House of Representatives who has been passed over for Secretary of State, and Kate Mara as Zoe Barnes, a reporter who makes some ethically questionable choices. She appears to have a relationship with him that is less than professional.
Journalists sleeping with their sources is a common plot line used in Hollywood.
Like in Thank You For Smoking, ABC's Nashville or Scoop. In real life, it's more typical for journalists to have relationships with sources deemed by others to be too close for comfort than confirmed as wholly unprofessional.
The Origin of Screwing Elephants
Who did the unethical thing: Married Pennsylvania State Senator Henry Cianfrani and political reporter Laura Foreman began a relationship while she was working for The Philadelphia Inquirer in the late 1970s. Foreman moved from the Inquirer to the New York Times, but when it was revealed that she'd received thousands of dollars in gifts from Cianfrani, she was forced to resign.
What'd they do next: Unrelated to his relationship with Foreman, Cianfrani was indicted on federal charges which included racketeering, bribery, obstruction of justice, and tax evasion. He went to prison for a couple years, and he and Foreman married after he was released.
Fun Fact: Their relationship prompted Times editor Abe Rosenthal to infamously say, "I don't care if my reporters are screwing elephants as long as they're not covering the circus."
Source: news.google.com
