Owens duped, ABC succeeded and the kids lost

0 Comments | USA TODAY, November, 2004 | by Jon Saraceno

The nuclear fallout from the Terrell Owens-Nicollette Sheridan faux locker room sex romp reaffirms a critical societal shortcoming, one that can't merely be ascribed to corporate greed in America: We don't care about our children the way we claim.

Too early, we expose them to the culture's basest and coarsest elements, then we're distraught and perplexed when we see randy, inappropriate behavior coming from them. Desperate Housewives ? What about desperate parents? We want our children and teens to be adults as soon as possible.

"What's wrong with these kids today?" we wonder.

Guess what? It's not them. It's us. We immerse them in our world.

Some otherwise right-thinking folks out there are wondering what's the big fuss over Monday Night Football 's...