Better Know a Noble

Mad Mel and the Media

Mel Gibson's well-known confrontation with a Malibu County police officer affords a valuable example of how best to cover a scandal.

While racing down the Pacific Coast Highway at 80 mph in a 45 mph zone, Hollywood star Mel Gibson was pulled over by the police and charged with driving under the influence. Thoroughly inebriated, Mr. Gibson compounded his guilt by letting loose a litany of Anti-Semitic remarks, claiming that "Jews are responsible for all the world's wars." He has since apologized publicly for the embarrassing incident and explained the remarks as an unfortunate consequence of too much alcohol.

Coverage of the story in national newspapers differed according to the paper's aims and mission. Judged on the basis of newsworthiness, the actual details of the event were completely insignificant. Mr. Gibson is neither an accountable politician nor a prominent corporate mogul. He is a man that entertains us, not a man who represents us. Those newspapers that chose to cover the story as news tend to prize profit and sensationalism over substance and quality. Disturbing is the fact that The New York Times's account of the arrest closely resembled the one found in The New York Post, a paper rated as the "least credible" media outlet in New York according to a 2004 Pace University Survey.

Several editorialists, however, demonstrated how the story did touch on timeless themes such as deception, bigotry, and forgiveness. As the subject of a clever editorial, the misteps of a Hollywood actor could achieve newsworthiness. Zev Chafets, writing for the LA Times, critisized Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League for exploiting the opportunity to vilify Mr. Gibson on the same day an Arab gunman shot six women in a Seattle Jewish Federation office. Shmuely Boteach stressed the need for Jews to forgive a sincerely remorseful man in an August 1st op-ed in The New York Sun.

With the skill of an artisan, editorialists took an otherwise irrelevant story and reframed it to discuss current societal values. What started as a news story became a modern Aesop fable.