Within hours following the revelation that Susan Smith had confessed to murdering her children - and murdering them in a particularly horrifying way - local and national news shows brought on psychological "experts" opining about the reasons.In no major media account of the horrifying killings in South Carolina can one find the observation that Susan Smith simply wanted to kill her children. The media seem unable to understand why she wanted to kill them, but are nearly certain that she did not really want to kill them.
On one point they are nearly unanimous. She didn't kill the children merely to get what she wanted out of life: a man she loved. Such an act and motive would be evil, and the media seem unable to consider that evil exists.Smith's actions quite possibly were the result of evil - that is, planned wrong-doing reflective of ignoble motives. Such motives would include selfishness and self-absorption and reflect an unspeakable proposition: Some mothers are bad people and don't love their children; indeed, some hate them.
The evidence, in fact, seems to point precisely in that direction in the case of Smith. Apparently on the heels of receiving a letter from her boyfriend to the effect that her ready-made family stood in the way of continuing their relationship, Smith appeared willing - indeed eager - to remove that obstacle.
Within hours following the revelation that Susan Smith had confessed to murdering her children - and murdering them in a particularly horrifying way - local and national news shows brought on psychological "experts" opining about the reasons. She may have been abused, said one; she may have been mentally ill, said another; and her family may have been dysfunctional, said a third. Smith's lawyer, perhaps recognizing the media's reflexive exculpatory judgment, says he is considering pleading insanity.
We argued in the April 1994 issue of Forbes Media Critic that the news media are partial to exculpatory explanations of bad behavior, particularly psychiatric excuses. Barbara Walters never questioned John Hinck-ley's parents' contention that their son's mental illness caused him to try to assassinate President Reagan. Last year, when she interviewed Judge Sol Wachtler, the former chief justice of New York's highest court who methodically terrorized both the woman who spurned him and her daughter, at no time did she challenge his claim that mental illness made him do it.
Similarly, in the Susan Smith case, the media appeared immediately to be on a prurient hunt for guiltless reasons for Smith's killing of her children. Such reflexes on the part of the media dull their investigative sophistication as well. The Washington Post, for example, reported days after the confession that the mother contemplated suicide. How does the Post know that Smith contemplated suicide? Why not report this as a claim, a report that would let the reader consider whether this was another deceptive ploy on the part of Smith to dull the outrage against her. But doubting the sincerity of her claim of suicidal intentions implies considering the possibility that she is malevolent, or evil.
Regardless, Frank Rich, theater-critic-turned-columnist for The New York Times, claims (Nov. 13, 1994) that there is only a small difference between Susan Smith and the rest of us, implying that but for the grace of God there go we. The premeditation and contemplative nature of the crime are evident from the results of the investigation to date. Smith planned the murders, covered them up and lied about them - all over a period of nine long days. She underwent long grilling by the police and probing interviews by the media. None shook her resolution to deny, deceive and cover up.
African-Americans add to the complaints against Smith. As one columnist put it, "How could she do it? And then blame a black man." The "evil" hypothesis makes the asking of this question near-laughable. It is hardly remarkable that a vicious child-killer would not be concerned that a false accusation scapegoating black men would bring pain to the African-American community. In a country of several hundred million people, horrifying acts will occur. Certainly, parents killing their children is not unheard of.
A 10-year study by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports in a recent study that among child homicides reported as abductions, parents are the culprits in 12 percent of the cases. And lest one think that this is another example of the innately aggressive and violent qualities peculiar to males, mothers killing their children is not unheard of either - in fact, mothers kill their boys more than fathers do.
The vindicating explanations by the media send us on a fruitless search to eliminate the motives for such atrocities.
The conscious recognition that evil acts occur will make it less likely that the media can be counted on to provide unwitting help for plotters of despicable acts. It is unfortunate that perhaps the last four-letter word left unsaid on network news is "evil."