Who's responsible? Blame the media

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), July, 1995 by Joe Saltzman

WE LIVE in an age where it has become commonplace to refuse to take responsibility for one's actions. In times past, taking responsibility for what you did was considered the proper thin, to do. Ladies and gentlemen could do nothing else. If you were caught in a lie or a deception or scandalous behavior, you didn't blame your parents, your friends, your teachers, or the press; you acted like an adult and accepted responsibility for your actions. In olden, albeit sexist, times, it was considered the manly thing to do. Fess up and take your punishment. Do the right thing.

Today, that is the last thing most people want to do. It's always the other person's fault: a tyrannical, unfair boss, mean-spirited spouse, abusive parent, racist police, conspirators in government, or, most of all, the liberal-biased, tabloid-tainted mass media. Blame anyone you can find except yourself.

People caught taking drugs blame the dealer and the media for their habit. Teenagers caught in an unexpected pregnancy blame their parents, the schools, and the media. Parents whose children are disrespectful to them blame the schools and the media. A pair of brothers accused of murder blame their parents for abusing them and the media for holding them up to public scorn and ridicule. Even baseball team owners, who couldn't manage their own affairs and destroyed a season and killed the 1994 World Series in the process, blamed the players, umpires, and finally the media for their incompetence. They were blameless. It wasn't the owners' problem that they had mismanaged and abused their authority. It wasn't their fault that they destroyed the game through avarice and arrogance. It wasn't their fault that the National Labor Relations Board slapped them on their collective wrist for unfair labor practices. It was the sportswriters who failed to make their position clear to the public. It was the media's fault they were losing money.

Since adults have found that they can get away with murder simply by blaming someone else for their inexcusable actions, it shouldn't be surprising that youngsters are using the same kind of reasoning, finding the media the best kind of scapegoat.

The majority of kids interviewed in a recent survey charged that far too much bedhopping by unmarried TV characters was responsible for kids being sexually active. It wasn't their fault. Blame the tube. The idea that one could blame someone else for everything from premarital sex to talking back to your parents (and one suspects bedwetting as well) was irresistible to most of those surveyed, ages 10 to 16. Big surprise.

Four out of five said entertainment TV should teach them right from wrong. But no, the kids added, programs such as "The Simpsons" and "Married ... With Children" encouraged them to behave disrespectfully toward their parents. They didn't do it. TV made them do it.

This was music to the ears of an advocacy group called Children Now that sponsored the survey. James Steyer, the organization's president, was ecstatic. The kids are saying, "Hey this is influencing us and some of it is very bad." Ergo, says Children Now, we need to listen to these youngsters.

It's not the parents' fault their children are watching too much TV. The parents are too busy working full-time jobs. Mom and Dad don't have time to baby-sit after they come home exhausted from a hard day's work. It isn't their fault their children watch six hours of TV a day, including late-night adult-oriented programs. Unless Mom and Dad work, there's not enough money to keep the kids sheltered, clothed, and fed. Don't blame them. Blame the TV. Get rid of electronic media and there won't be any disrespect to parents or premarital sex or crime in the streets.

The one thing you can't do in 1995 is not find someone to blame for your problems. If you take drugs for a decade or more and then blow your brains out, you are not to blame for your addiction--it's the person selling you the drugs you crave. Or let your celebrity father make the case for you after you're dead. Take responsibility for your actions? Don't be naive. The media's preoccupation with violence made you do it. Blame them. Got fired because you're incompetent? Don't analyze why you can't do the job. Get a gun and shoot up the office. Blame the people who fired you. Blame TV for teaching you how to take revenge with a gun. It's an even better, excuse than fast food and Twinkies. Got a sexually transmitted disease or the horrors of AIDS because of unprotected sex? Blame your partner, blame society, blame gays, blame the media, blame everyone but yourself.

What would happen if we once again abided by the old-fashioned notion that we are responsible for what we do--that we are responsible for drinking too much alcohol, taking drugs, having unprotected sex, getting angry, and doing stupid things? What would happen if, instead of blaming the media and others for everything that happens to us, we simply remembered that we are accountable for our actions? We can shut off the TV set, refuse to purchase the National Enquirer, or not buy a ticket to an offensive movie. We can even stop using drugs, having unprotected sex, and being disrespectful to each other.