I've Sheen enough

After the shooting in Tucson in January, there was much media discussion about the way our country approaches mental illness, and the takeaway was that we don’t do enough for people who need help. We don’t give them the right attention or services. And yet, here, with Sheen, the media is doing exactly what it should not: exploiting a mentally ill person—because he is a celebrity, because he’s practically begging to be on air, because he says things that make for great sound bites, because they hope he’ll be a ratings boon.

Granted, the shows are, in part, focusing on Sheen’s history of addiction and questioning whether he’s “crazy” and in need of help. It would admittedly be worse if they ignored his instability and treated him as just another Hollywood bad boy. But, ultimately, the sensational yet superficial coverage is about letting Sheen talk no matter what he says, which he desperately wants to do (he joined Twitter on Tuesday to talk even more). Eager interviewers haven’t batted an eye when he’s said bizarre or hateful things, even if they joke about his comments later, and, in the process, they’ve given him time to defend and justify actions that were either criminal or evidence he needs psychiatric help. (Or just proof that he can be an enormous jerk.) For instance, Sheen denied to Piers Morgan that he has ever hit a woman—despite the fact that he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault after an altercation with now ex-wife Brooke Mueller in 2009, and no contest in 1997 to charges of abuse inflicted on girlfriend Brittany Ashland. He told Morgan that he was restraining Ashland from attacking him with a small fork she must have stolen from a buffet, and the show’s host seemed just fine with that answer, merely asking if Sheen regretted the incident. The segment ran with the title “Sheen Sets the Record Straight.”