http://www.santa-cruz.com/archive/20...6/edit/let.htm
I can definitely see your point that an entire group shouldn't be punished for the actions of a few. But here's the catch in this situation (in my opinion anyway): Every single member of DOC knew that MTV would be following their every move. Every single member signed a contract saying that anything they did or said during the duration of the show's filming could and most likely would be aired on national television. Thus, every single thing that every single member of DOC did would in some way reflect on DOC as a whole. I don't think every single member is as stupid as Casey and Matt- but I also think that their brotherhood needs to accept that these two acted in ways that necessarily denegrated their entire organization. If those two weren't smart enough to realize that their pointless (and entirely un-funny) prank would bring negative attention to their fraternity, well, it kinda sucks to be them. Bad press and Greek image concerns are always a topic...some random member of the PETA chapter/Young Democrats/Ultimate Frisbee/etc etc etc on a campus dies of alcohol poisoning, the newspapers all console the loss and perhaps make a comment regarding excessive alcohol use on college campuses. A fraternity member dies of the same affliction, nine times out of ten the paper is going to mention it as some sort of Greek related death. These are stereotypes and stigmas...so perhaps DOC should have thought ahead of time to speak to their members about the potential risk their actions had. As the president of my sorority, I expressed my concerns about mtv's presence on campus before they ever got there. I explained that I didn't want to chance of our sorority's name being tarnished by faulty editing, a desire to impress cameras, and/or and group/individual stupidity. We voted not to interact with DOC or MTV at all during this period of time, because we respect our organization enough to protect our reputation. If DOC doesn't have that kind of respect for their organization, hey, more power to them, they're accomplishing all that they set out to do. If they do...maybe they should try to choose brothers who wouldn't behave in such a manner, or at least work harder to educate them on self aware and intelligent behavior. I guess my point is that we don't live in a fair world, and for any other type of organization, this sort of anger towards the group wouldn't have occured. But anyone with half a brain could have anticipated the cause and effect of such a decision, and thus I really don't have much sympathy for them at all. Don't invite cameras to film your every move if you're going to throw a fit when other people don't appreciate your immature activities.