The Kiss Cam Fallout Includes Schadenfreude, Shaming

The Kiss Cam scandal has dominated headlines over the better part of a week, leading to the resignation of Astronomer CEO Andy Byron after he was spotted on a giant screen at a Coldplay concert embracing his company's head of HR, Kristin Cabot. Although some are celebrating the public castigation of the pair, others say it's "time to move on." Some contrasting takes:

• Blame and shame: The public shaming of the couple is "something to celebrate," writes Helen Schulman for the New York Times, adding that, "in the age of Trump," it's a "strange relief" and "refreshing" to learn that "someone somewhere was taking responsibility for his actions, even if he probably had no choice." She also points to Byron and Cabot's reaction at being caught on the Kiss Cam, which was notably an embarrassed and shocked one. "I hope they will become sort of folk heroes in this age of utter shamelessness," Schulman writes, insinuating that public GOP officials now in office—for example, the DOD's Pete Hegseth, the FBI's Kash Patel—might follow Byron's example and also consider stepping down from their roles "in the face of [their] trespasses."

• Time to curb the gossip? Not quite as enthusiastic for the public spectacle is David Oliver, who dives into the concepts of schadenfreude—deriving pleasure from others' misfortunes—and "downward social comparison," which is when people check out social media just to feel better about themselves by looking down upon others. "When you're engaging more of this hypercritical speculation on people's lives, who you don't even know, whether it's celebrities, or it's your neighbors, it's having the same impact," a Hunter College dean tells OIiver for his opinion piece in USA Today. "It's a negative thing."
• Societal warnings: Two other pieces on the matter claim even more cautionary tales around the scandal. Arwa Mahdawi writes for the Guardian about the "jarring reminder of the reach of the surveillance state" that has emerged from this news cycle, while Mike Madrid wonders what the reaction to the incident suggests overall. It has "exposed something larger," he writes for the Great Transformation. "A society that's lost the ability to look away, and perhaps more importantly, lost the desire to try." He adds that "the collective glee reveals something uncomfortable: We've constructed a system rewarding our worst impulses while punishing human frailty with disproportionate severity."