1. The fact that the public "feels entitled to know the most intimate details of the life of any public figure" impairs participation in the public sphere, since "[m]any people cannot take that kind of exposure": the fear of exposure to the public can induce a person having the best skills and qualities for a public office, but having held in the past some minor deviant behaviour (or even just presenting some eccentric trait), to withdraw in the private sphere, renouncing to engage in active politics;particular through active involvement in politics,1998
2. More generally, gossip may be beneficial to individual autonomy since it provides us with information on the "experiments of living" of others (to use an expression of Mill 1974), from which we can draw indications for our own choices. For some considerations on the value of gossip, see Zimmw1983, who argues against upholding the "public disclosure" tort in US law, a tort, which, following the suggestion of 1890, gives one a cause of action when another widely discloses one's private matter that is "highly offensive to a reasonable person" and "is not of legitimate concern to the public;From this viewpoint, gossip seems to play a positive social function (though individual freedom may be impaired by social sanctions against deviating behaviour,1974
3. Autonomy and Informational Privacy, or Gossip: The Central Meaning of the First Amendment;C E Baker;Social Philosophy and Public Policy,2004