Can we separate art from the artists when they do something bad?

Do you still watch The Cosby Show, or listen to R. Kelly, or do you change the channel and edit your playlist in disgust? What responsibility do we have as consumers?

Air Date: September 25, 2024 12:00 pm

Sean "Diddy" Combs, wearing a fur coat, walks down the sideline during the second half of an NBA basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and the New York Knicks, Sunday, March 12, 2017, in New York. Combs' lawyer said Tuesday, March 26, 2024, that the searches of his Los Angeles and Miami properties by federal authorities in a sex-trafficking investigation were ”a gross use of military-level force" and that Combs is “innocent and will continue to fight" to clear his name. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

It happens all the time. Your favorite musician, director, actor or writer does something really horrendous – maybe even criminal – and you ask yourself, is it wrong to keep listening to their music, or watching their films? Last week music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested for sex trafficking and other charges, and there are a lot of other examples.

R. Kelly, Woody Allen, Harvey Weinstein…the list goes on. Today we asked the age old question of can (and should) we separate the art from the artist. What do you do when you discover a favorite artist has crossed a line? Do you delete them from your playlist in disgust, do you listen with guilt…or something else?

Our guests this hour are Erich Matthes, associate professor of philosophy at Wellesley College and author of Drawing the Line: What to Do with the Work of Immoral Artists from Museums to the Movies, and Elizabeth Wellington, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist who writes on gender, race, fashion, culture and wellness.

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