In defense of the indefensible:
Two New Jersey college students — members of the “young male demographic” marketing strategists have identified as the key to vault — last week were revealed as having tweeted unfathomably explicit, sexually threatening messages about the 17-year-old daughter of Curt Schilling.
Schilling, an ESPN baseball analyst following a distinguished big league pitching career, previously had tweeted that his daughter, Gabby, will attend a New England college where she plans to play on its softball team.
And that’s all it took for Adam Nagel, 20-year-old student disc jockey at Brookdale Community College, and Sean MacDonald, a January graduate of Montclair State, to go into techno-vandal, unprintably lewd action via anti-social media.
Nagel has been suspended by Brookdale. MacDonald has been fired as a part-time Yankees ticket-seller.
Sadder still, the next logical question isn’t, “Why would they?” but “Why wouldn’t they?”
No matter how good or bad a job done by their parents, there was no reasonable way to shield either offender from the relentless prompts that attack and contaminate the vulnerability of their age group. They’re prime prey for anything-for-a-buck strangers who remorselessly encourage the development of crude, hit-and-run wise guys.
No need to go with the flow to follow it. Interesting that one was a student disc jockey — even appearing in his Twitter photo at a microphone and under a headset — given radio’s sustaining “Morning Zoo” formula. Find the most shameless crotch-talking, coarse-mouthed “talent” then let ’em loose!
If they “go too far” — whatever that means — then “shocked” management fires or suspends them, pretending it had no idea.
There is no form of mass media and entertainment commerce — TV, music, internet, video games, radio, movies, advertising — that isn’t heavily and aggressively invested and reliant on any combination of violence, sex and crudity. Lower, go lower! Now, even lower!
Creative and/or clever — even the minimally thoughtful and socially responsible — have been dismissed in favor of slapping an “R” or “M” on the packaging.
Not for years have “edgy” and “irreverent” meant edgy and irreverent. They mean vulgar. Language arts? “Stinks” became “sucks” became “blows.” “Crap” and “piss,” “balls,” “ass” and “scumbag” have become so TV/radio common that to scold a teen for their usage will leave them curious about specifics.
Modesty, a component of civility, has been deemed commercially worthless, replaced by boastful, chest-pounding “swagger.” You don’t cheer for your team, you chant insults and obscenities at the other team. And one can learn to “twerk,” as opposed to dance, in just one try!
Yet to fight it, to object to the escalation of common incivility, is to risk condemnation — run for your life! — as any combo of geezer, radical right-wing conservative, Christian zealot or bigot. The safe media route is to indulge it, suffer it quietly. Or pander to it — just hop on!
It’s a good bet one or both of these young tweeters grew up as two of the millions of lemmings drawn to the work of Mr. and Mrs. Vince McMahon, who ordered their dubiously muscled, limited life-spanned wrestlers to stand in front of TV cameras, thrust their hands toward their genitals and holler, “Suck it!”
But such enterprise didn’t prevent Mrs. McMahon from being named to Connecticut’s Board of Education! Then she ran for the U.S. Senate with the hearty endorsements of “family values” Republican-Conservatives!
Why in TV shows and commercials show men having a conversation in a hallway when you now can show them standing at urinals?
FOX Sports 1 is wild about Katie Nolan, a young woman who entertains the young, male sports-minded with smug, smiling references to “getting laid” and mocking those with Tourette’s syndrome. At least FS1 gives fair warning to Nolan’s latest show: It’s titled “Garbage Time.”
What should her take be on this Gabby Schilling episode? As a matter of professional consistency, she should champion these young men as per “freedom of expression” no?
Schilling’s employer, ESPN, long has participated in such desensitization programs. It currently features a series on the vulgar, misogynistic rapper, recidivist criminal and professional pornographer — specializing in teenaged girls about Gabby Schilling’s age — Snoop Dogg.
In ESPN’s series, good old Mr. Dogg is shown being far more caring about his teenaged children than he was about everyone else’s. All other teens could do was help make him rich and famous.
Curt Schilling is threatening legal action against those two young men. He is furious, taking it very seriously and personally. Understood. All of us should.
But don’t ask how could they, when, given what they’ve been force fed since they could turn on a TV, it’s a matter of why wouldn’t they. Sow, reap. Just hit “send.”
Hue must be joking!
More satire-proof reality: The school colors of the St. John’s Red Storm are, oddly enough, red and white. The Marquette Golden Eagles’ colors are, oddly enough, gold and blue.
But when their basketball teams met Wednesday — as seen on FOX Sports 1 — neither, heaven forbid, wore their school color uniforms. St. John’s wore light gray; Marquette wore powder blue.
On TV, especially from a wide camera distance, the difference between light blue and light gray is, well, not much.
One had to lean in, focus hard. At all other times the game appeared as a 10-on-none — everyone was on the same team!
Get ‘ticket’ out of town
As of Friday, four times we had heard “punch their ticket to the big dance.” That’s now up there with “You da man!” and “Get in the hole!” for punishment not banned by the Geneva Convention.
TV experts who “break down” games continue to ignore those decided by free throws. As reader Phil Kaye points out, Rhode Island lost its shot at the Atlantic 10 title in a one-point loss to Davidson. URI was 17-of-33 from the line.
Rather wish Tiger Woods would sue the ex-PGAer who claimed Woods played on PEDs. Woods might then have to explain, under oath, why he several times flew in, from Canada, Dr. Anthony Galea — an Alex Rodriguez doctor, too — to treat him in Florida. Galea since has been banned from the U.S. following a deal in which he pled guilty to transporting “mislabeled drugs.”
A caller/viewer noted Mike Francesa was wearing a shirt with an unfamiliar logo, thus asked if it’s the logo of his Long Island golf club. “It’s one of them,” Francesa replied. Maybe he meant he had more than one shirt.