Talking Trash

There they go again. John Galliano. Charlie Sheen. And now maybe Julian Assange. The list is so obvious it needs no explanation, thanks to the saturated media coverage awarded these foul-mouthed celebrities. If there’s anything salutory about this parade of stories, it’s the rapid, direct way bad behavior is confronted. Sheen lost his lucrative television show for crudely criticizing the man who wrote and produced it. Galliano was dumped by fashion house Christian Dior after a scratchy video emerged with his unguarded, disgusting comments about loving Hitler and gassing ugly people.

That Assange felt compelled to quickly deny his alleged anti-Semitic rants to a British reporter speaks to the unacceptability of it all. Which in an odd way is a sort of good news.

But here’s our question: Who raised these guys? (Here we will concede that saying unkind things about Jews is not a gender-specific activity. See: Helen Thomas.)

And what kind of culture do we live in when supposedly accomplished people who skillfully perform on the world stage — designing, acting, leaking information and, yes, even reporting — hold such nasty thoughts and feel free to express them?

This reaction is not an instance of over-sensitivity or of political correctness gone awry. It’s a matter of good manners and civil discourse. A random 5-year-old shouldn’t say the things Galliano did, even in the privacy of his own backyard.

Trash talk is learned behavior. And the faster we excise it from public discourse, the faster we stop creating media sensations out of its practicioners, the closer we’ll come to a culture that, at the very least, respects the spoken word.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspectives in Opinion. To contact Opinion authors, email [email protected].

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO