The Selective Public Eye

A moral paradox is playing out right in front of our eyes and cameras too. Getting caught on camera can have far-reaching consequences — ask Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and his HR Chief and paramour, Kristin Cabot. Their extra-marital affair was caught on the “kiss cam” at a recent Coldplay concert propelling them to instant infamy. Overnight, the duo became the subject of countless memes and cautionary tales of karma coming for you. Commiserations were virtually sent out to the respective spouses, while jocular parallels of the newly anointed singles were drawn from Coldplay frontman Chris Martin’s also fresh on the market status. The public faux pas unleashed the marriage police who chastised those who deceive their partners and promised comeuppance that came sooner than expected.

Byron’s personal indiscretions cost him a seat at the company table and prompted his resignation along with Cabot’s. Reports suggest he may sue the popular alternative rock band for invasion of privacy and emotional distress. The cheating scandal broke the internet as quickly as Kim Kardashian’s glazed donut butt on the cover of Paper magazine a decade ago. The backlash has been swift too — resignations, job loss, potential legal suits, overly cautious cheaters et al. If you look closer, this discomfort and anguish faced by two families had hundreds of unwarranted partakers. Even today, the internet is replete with opinion and chatter ranging from office romances to the return of ‘shame’ and renewed sense of awareness that cameras are everywhere. The fall-out is being followed attentively even though it is of scant consequence to the rest of us.

But that’s the thing with public spectacles — they often evoke this kind of mass interest. Once you have gone viral, the world has been invited to judgement and there’s no going back. I’m not saying that infidelity is a small misdemeanour. To the lives that are affected, it can be the worst sin causing the most colossal damage. But as we stride decisively into the second half of 2025, I can’t help but ask — is a cheating scandal really the most outrageous thing that we are witnessing each day? Are we not watching one of the greatest human tragedies unravel in front of our eyes? Over a 100 people, including dozens of children, have died, and are continuing to perish, from hunger and starvation in war-torn Gaza. News stories suggest that 81 children have died and there are purportedly 28,000 cases of malnutrition. This man-made mass starvation (as termed by the World Health Organisation (WHO)) has been caused by the blockade that has stopped the movement of essential supplies. Over 100 aid organisations have issued a joint statement begging for global intervention and aid. Even as warehouses both inside and outside Gaza stand with food, water, and medical supplies, the aid workers cannot access them. The statement further said, “Humanitarian organizations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes”. This ongoing saga of horror is well-documented and reaches thousands of internet users every day. And yet here we are, laughing at a CEO’s affair and waxing eloquent about the yays and nays of stepping outside marital bounds.

Is Byron the evil master that should be virtually lynched? Or shall we, for once, direct our public outrage to the human atrocity that is happening simultaneously to our everyday lives? As we eat, sleep, travel, work, and go about our daily drudgery, an entire generation of Palestinians is being wiped out in Gaza in front of those same cameras. These “kill cams” are beaming human transgressions but have had no impact on our selective outrage. Governments have washed their hands off the situation, allowing Israel to release a newer kind of Hell with passing time.

The public gaze on this real life abomination should have been far harsher; action around it brisker; global indignation, censures, trade bans more effective. But here we are, cheering the crumbling of a tech bro and pretending that a more serious cataclysm is happening in a parallel universe. A two-second clip of a couple’s illicit affair has had more of a ripple effect than hundreds dying of hunger. Consider that.

The writer is an author and media entrepreneur, Views expressed are personal