After the Crowd Moves On

What public shaming actually does to a human being, and to the rest of us

When the kiss cam video of Kristen Cabot and Andy Byron of #Coldplaygate was ricocheting across the internet, I happened to be interviewing Jake Tapper about scandals for my podcast Hard Knox. (One of Jake’s many projects is United States of Scandal, where he looks back on iconic, mostly political, controversies, and the consequences for the people wrapped up in them.) I had an icky feeling about the way this particular scandal was getting so much attention, so I asked him a question that felt naive even as I said it: “Are all scandals equal? Are all of them in the public interest?” His answer was blunt and humane. “These are lives that are destroyed,” he said. “This is what these people are going to be known for for the rest of their lives. And it’s not fair.”

Ah, yes, that fateful word: fair. It’s not the word we most often hear in moments of public shaming. Deserved, accountability, consequences, yes. But fair? Fairness requires context, proportionality, and a sense of what punishme…