Accountability

Should I have to explain accountability to a 60 year old man?
Recently we had damage done to film. To which the guy who put up the film blames the machine. We inspected the machine. Then we rolled some dummy roll through it, then some "live" rolls. We couldn't re-create the issue. To which technicians declared it to be operator error.

The 60 year old fella, then proceeds to send every email starting with "We..."

As in "we cleaned the rolls as we usually do..."
Not "I..." as in "I put the rolls up as I usually do..."

I called this a cowardly pussy act. Considering there are only two of us left. That meant, we...as in including me. Now, I despise throwing someone under the bus in the workplace (much more fun in life), but that was shitbag pussy. So I explained to him why this is a cowardly move to lump us both into this. I felt it really dilutes the blame, especially since I wasn't even involved. I was actually the one who located the issue. But here we are. Me having to explain the difference between taking the blame for something you did and something you didn't realize you did.

The explanation being "I'm not sure what happened, I did what I normally did. I don't think I did anything wrong so how can I admit it was wrong." Pal...the rolls were scratched on your watch. It doesn't matter how, at this point, it matters that there are inconsistencies with the rest of the rolls. A lapse of technique or what not. Maybe you feel you were the unfortunate one of poor luck. That's fine. But...you could admit to the higher ups "I...I was the one who put it up, and whatever happened, I feel really bad about." NOT "...dunno what happened, we did what we usually do." I also explained to him that it's not my place to call him out to the higher ups. That's garbage on my part to have to do so.

That's a full blown coward. You would think at this point...being a man trumps being afraid of a reprimand.