May 15, 2004

BY SUE ONTIVEROS SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Gosh, what would Americans do if they didn't have ''the media'' to blame for everything?

Less than 24 hours after we discovered Nicholas Berg had been beheaded in Iraq, callers on talk radio were blaming the media for the barbaric treatment of the young American. Yep, let's blame the media again.

Basically, the line of thinking goes, if the American media hadn't been repeatedly showing the photos of American soldiers degrading and mistreating prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Berg's killers wouldn't have felt the need to avenge the Iraqi inmates. This never would have happened if the photos hadn't been shown. Right, these ''incidents'' would have been our little secret.

These callers are mad at the media for showing the photos, giving terrorists an excuse to take a hit at us. Never mind that the terrorists are in the Middle East watching a whole different media; it's the American media's fault. And now they're pretty ticked off because the gruesome video of Berg's head being ripped off his body isn't being televised.

Well, you know what? Maybe for once we, your everyday Americans, should accept our part in this whole mess. Since the moment that first plane smacked into the Twin Towers, I have wondered if our being so oblivious to the important happenings around us didn't play a role in the tragedy. For a short time immediately after 9/11 we paid attention to current events rather than TV and pop culture happenings. But that didn't last long.

Don't think that al-Qaida or anyone else who wants to take a poke at us hasn't noticed that way too often our citizenry has a tendency to act like bubbleheads. Sure, we get mad if someone does something to kill or hurt Americans, but we just can't concentrate long enough to figure out why it happened or what's the best way to address our problems.

We're too busy tsk-tsking that Britney Spears is dating somebody else's man. That's the kind of stuff the majority of us pay attention to in these dangerous times.

We can't be bothered to figure out how the heck we ended up in Iraq. That's too complicated for us. During the discussion on Berg, I actually heard someone on the radio blame Saddam Hussein for the collapse of the World Trade Center. Hey, remember Osama bin Laden? Maybe not. He hasn't been on television lately.

Until this most gruesome killing of poor young Berg, we were expending most of our outrage over how the voting might be rigged on ''American Idol.'' It's much easier to spend days and days thinking about whether Ross and Rachel would get back together on the ''Friends'' finale. As if any of this silly stuff really mattered.

Yet some 52 million viewers managed to find time to watch the end of that series. I doubt even a quarter of those same viewers bothered to tune in the next day to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's testimony about the Abu Ghraib photos and reported prisoner abuse.

Fox News was using the phrase ''Wake Up America'' in its coverage Wednesday of the execution of Berg. That's exactly what we have to do. I feel as if someone has to stand up and say, ''Concentrate!'' the way a teacher might before a distracted class. Things are really dicey right now for our country; we need to focus on what is vital to our well-being.

We have to stop sweating the trivia, get united as a people and ask some really important questions. This isn't the first time an American civilian has been killed in Iraq. How exactly is the rebuilding of Iraq being billed to American workers? Do we know?

Do we realize this is the second time, albeit in a different country, that an American who was Jewish has been beheaded in that part of the world? Do we really think that's a coincidence? What does it mean?

Can we be attentive long enough to consider that maybe some of the troops we've sent to Iraq have not been adequately trained? And how do we get a better-trained military? Is it through a military draft? Will the reported abuses at Abu Ghraib force that to happen?

Do we know the answers to any of these important questions? Could we as a country pay attention long enough to find out?