Wilson, Williams, West: Are we becoming America the boorish?

On Sept. 12, Williams, in the process of losing at the US Open to Kim Clijsters, swore at a line judge who called her on a foot fault. Thanks to court-side microphones, fans could hear Williams's profanity-laced threats.

At the MTV Video Music Awards the next night, singer West jumped on stage and grabbed the microphone from Taylor Swift, who was a few sentences into an acceptance speech. Telling the stunned country star that she could continue in a moment, West extolled the virtues of runner-up Beyoncé, who watched from the audience, with dropped jaw.

Each offender sped through the standard pop-culture routine of public apology. Ever since, the outbursts have been bundled together as a sort of rudeness three-fer – something Toby Miller, professor of media and culture studies at the University of California, Riverside, says is probably misguided.

The three incidents are very different, he says. Athletes have long expressed their displeasure with officials – think John McEnroe throwing his racquet, or Roberto Alomar spitting on an umpire. In the celebrity world, bad behavior is almost an art form – there are public-relations specialists working full time to turn public gaffes (Paris Hilton sex tape, anyone?) into gold.

But Wilson's outburst, he says, was, in fact, extraordinary.

"This kind of behavior is unheard of in recent memory," Miller says.

Overall, he says, he sees the political right embracing the politics of the spectacle – disrupting healthcare town meetings, for instance, with similar tactics to those used by Act Up protesters during the AIDS crisis. But a member of Congress interrupting a presidential speech, he says, is unprecedented – and may show other forces at work. Former President Jimmy Carter, for one, has charged that racism underlies much of the political bad behavior.

Not that Washington has a great tradition of manners. History buffs might recall the story of another South Carolina politician – Preston Brooks – badly beating Sen. Charles Sumner in 1856 for criticizing slavery. Yale history Prof. Joanne Freeman says this sort of attack was common then: In her research on congressional violence, she has found records of thrown tables, duels, fired guns, brawls, as well as journalists beaten for writing about the mayhem.

"We get a feeling that now it's so horrible and then, back in the day, it was so civilized," she says. "Sometimes it was, but sometimes it wasn't, and those guys were armed."

Even in the bad old days, though, Wilson's words would have had impact, she says. Calling someone a "liar," she says, would not just be rude, but an attack – and probably would prompt a duel.

"It was interesting for me to witness the national gasp the other week," she says. "There would have been the same reaction in 1840."

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