Now, I’m not a big fan of Britney Spears. However, it just gets a bit tiresome seeing all the media posse toot exactly the same horn in the form of big headlines when a lot of more important things are going on in the world. Whoring for attention isn’t news to me. That goes for media as well as their topics. Latest example:
Front page on Fox:

A college girl’s death, Bin Laden, a tropical storm hitting North Carolina, and a major earthquake merit small type. Who knows what else happened? Britney’s show will be forgotten tomorrow, the others stories will have some impact for some time to come. Think I’m picking only on Fox?
MTV Awards Flourish Despite Britney Bomb

That’s ABC.
VMAs bounce back after Britney bombs
Out-of-shape singer looks bleary, unprepared

That’s NBC.
CNN is the only one that seemed to word it as I would have:
Lackluster Britney Spears kicks off MTV awards

Bottom line, this was a lot of wasted media. At least CNN and NBC put the story where it belonged, buried somewhere. The MTV VMA’s are a complete waste of air-time. Any publicity they get is what they want. Anyone with any sense whatsoever would have known Britney’s not in the right frame of mind right now to be a headliner on a national show. Sticking her up there was just media whoring on the part of MTV, which is all they know any more. Justin Timberlake demanded during the show they play more videos. In other words, Music TeleVision needs to do what it was designed to do and quit competing with O Network and all the others. If they showed a sincere commitment to music instead of selling advertising any way possible, then maybe the VMA’s would actually mean something and they wouldn’t have to resort to media whoring by way of sticking an obviously not-ready-for-prime-time performer front and center to get anyone to pay attention. Britney may have been lackluster, she obviously wasn’t in to this performance. However, apparently the rest of the show hardly merited being mentioned. Last year it didn’t get mentioned at all. MTV hardly gets mentioned for music any more, why should anyone pay attention to their awards?
Next year, I’m gonna bet it doesn’t get mentioned at all. Again. Britney bombing has just gotten so over-used any more they can’t rely on that one again. And, the rest of the line-up they featured last night would never get anyone to turn off the Soap network.
And, for what it’s worth, Britney’s performance was about what I expected. Nothing even close to great, but not nearly the train wreck Fox describes. However, how long can people expect Britney to keep being a precocious teenager? She’s grown up. I think that’s what hurts so many people and why she will never meet their expectations again. She’s morphing now into what she will be after the twelve year old tease. Hopefully, she’ll morph again into something a lot more appealing to most people than a twenty-five year old stripper with two kids. Not everyone can pull off being Madonna, I know Britney can’t, just the wrong personality. However, she can be the next insert favorite lasting performer here who didn’t rely on sex exclusively to sell their music. There are more of those than there are Madonna’s.
Until then, please media, just focus on the people that truly merit attention. I prefer those that are on top of their game as it sets the bar a little higher in life.
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