ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Thursday, September 6, 2007

Outrage overload follows a summer of scandals
By Colleen Carroll Campbell

The other night, while eating in a room lined with televisions, I looked up
mid-bite and saw a picture of Idaho Sen. Larry Craig. I could not hear the
anchorwoman's comments, but her solemn grimace told me all I needed to know:
Craig had done something outrageous, and he would be our villain of the week.

And so he was. Accused of propositioning a police officer in an airport
restroom in June, Craig had pleaded guilty and hoped to dodge publicity. But
the incident caught up with him last week, as news networks began looping
footage of his clumsy explanations and taking bets on his imploding career.

Craig's eventual resignation would be warranted, given his own guilty plea. But
after a summer of scandals, I find myself in outrage overload, unable to muster
much indignation over this latest offense.

Cable news networks have been pummeling us with one shocking morality tale
after another. Each week, it seems, the face of a new celebrity villain becomes
the indelible image that reappears with every click of the remote.

Starlets accounted for most scandals this summer: celebrity prisoners Paris
Hilton and Nicole Richie, habitual drunk driver Lindsay Lohan and accused
negligent mother Britney Spears. In July, NFL quarterback Michael Vick took
center stage after revolting images of his maimed dogs stunned America. Lest
the season end on a less sordid note, the Craig story erupted to incense us
again.

Public shaming of scoundrels is nothing new, but cable television and the
Internet ensure that we no longer can close our morning newspaper on the
villain of the day. Now we must see his face and hear details of his offense
everywhere we turn.

If we tire of his story, television offers many more to keep us fuming. We can
scorn criminals nabbed on "COPS," faithless lovers exposed by "Cheaters" and
sleazy Web surfers caught prowling for underage sex on "To Catch a Predator."
If we prefer to focus on higher profile rape or abduction cases, we can tune in
to CNN's Nancy Grace, who works herself into a righteous fury seven nights a
week. As she cross-examines suspects, berates defense attorneys and rants
against the miscreants whose crimes keep her in business, Grace makes no
pretense of dispassionate reporting. She is a proxy for the angry viewer, and
her rage fuels ratings.

It is odd that a popular culture allergic to moral absolutes has spawned such
moralistic entertainment. Perhaps our unraveling moral consensus has made us
eager to find evils upon which we all can agree and identify a few bright lines
we cannot cross. We may yell at the kids or kick the dog, but at least we don't
molest children or electrocute puppies.

This form of self-affirmation comes at a cost. The recent suicides of a guest
interrogated by Grace and one caught in a sex sting orchestrated by "To Catch a
Predator" are troubling reminders that the targets of our feeding frenzies,
despicable as their deeds may be, deserve judges less partial than
entertainment journalists. And lawsuits filed by reality show participants
suggest that our favorite TV villains may be victims of unflattering editing.

Our villain-obsessed media culture entertains us, but it also coarsens and
distracts us, tempting us to ignore more pernicious social ills and our own
flaws as we stew over celebrity sins. Television hosts assure us that the
distance between us and them is infinite, but a few hours of reality unplugged
can be a harsh reminder that, as novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, the line
between good and evil runs through every human heart.

Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television host and St. Louis-based
fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is
www.colleen-campbell.com.