I have long become accustomed to what I call the “BTMF” reflex whenever a great, newsmaking calamity or outrage happens.

That’s short for “Blame the media first.”

As a long-tenured journalist, I try not to take it personally. Yet sometimes the complainers have a point, and we in the news business would do a better job and provide better public service if we listened.

That’s why amid the anger, fear and recrimination that followed the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, a couple of timely words from Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox stayed on my mind: “conflict entrepreneurs.”

“I can’t emphasize enough the damage that social media and the internet is doing to all of us, those dopamine hits,” he explained in a later interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press”

“These companies, trillion-dollar market caps, the most powerful companies in the history of the world have figured out to how to hack our brains, get us addicted to outrage, which is the same type of dopamine, the same chemical that you get from taking fentanyl, get us addicted to outrage, and get us to hate each other.”

Cox makes an important point. As long as I’ve been a journalist, I have heard complaints about media bringing more heat than light, even in the once-respected print and broadcast realms.

But social media have amplified this tendency exponentially. Their algorithms are designed to capture and retain eyeballs, and few things do a better job than good old-fashioned outrage.

And given that they submit to minimal moderation and no editorial oversight, amateur social media “influencers” are free to lie and shill and manipulate reality if they find these tactics build their audiences and fill their bank accounts.

And the audiences are huge for many influencers, similar in size to those once reserved to major network anchors.

I don’t advocate censorship. I do advocate good sense.

Gov. Cox raised a question on many minds and across party lines: Will Kirk’s shocking murder finally mark a turning point in this era of recurring political violence?

“This is our moment,” Cox told reporters. “Do we escalate or do we find an off-ramp?”

There’s nothing necessarily immoral or unethical about this kind of entertainment, unless you examine the content.

We like to think ignorance is curable with information and with education, for those willing to engage in dialogue with others.

I always remember my Sunday school lessons where I learned the Bible verse from the Crucifixion that Charlie’s widow Erika Kirk quoted tearfully at her husband’s memorial: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”