Just when you think the media has gone as low as it can, it surprises you.
This week, multiple online news sites DEFENDED pop star Ke$ha’s drinking her own urine on MTV – and attacked the PTC for saying people shouldn’t have to pay for it.
Recently, the PTC reiterated its support for ala carte Cable Choice, which would give Americans a say in which pay-TV channels they purchase, rather than being forced to buy a “bundle” of hundreds of channels they don’t want. To illustrate our point, we mentioned the recent MTV documentary
Ke$ha: My Crazy Beautiful Life, in which pop star Ke$ha drank a bottle of her own urine. We asked if parents really wanted to be forced to pay for such content.
Sadly, press coverage of the PTC’s statement was all too typical. Some journals merely used the occasion as an excuse to make childish puns, like saying the PTC was “p***ed off,” or telling readers “urine for a treat.” A few offered straightforward coverage of the controversy. A sickening number touted the alleged “health benefits” of urophasia. And nearly all of them linked to the video of Ke$sha drinking. But the most unbelievable thing of all is that many prominent journals thought Ke$ha’s action was wonderful, and defended MTV’s airing of it.
One writer at a site called “
Holy Moly” shrieked, “Americans are not like us. They think having a slash into a bottle then drinking it is immoral. Who are the real freaks, eh?” If you really need to ask…And by the way, no, we don’t think drinking urine is immoral. We just think it’s really distasteful. And offensive. And disgusting. And that we shouldn’t be forced to support a channel that shows it. But, hey; if disliking drinking urine makes us “freaks”, then we’re GLAD to be “not like you.” And so are millions of other Americans.
Zimbio.com claimed that the urine-drinking stunt was “one of the most fascinating moments in the series thus far.” They must have a low threshold for fascination.
Spin, which is dependent on the music industry for its very existence, predictably supported Ke$ha’s action, also sneering that the “right-wing” PTC can’t possibly be nonpartisan, because we support Senator McCain’s Cable Choice bill giving people control over their own purchases. (Because only a liberal would support the exploitative entertainment mega-conglomerate capitalists who own MTV. Wait -- what?) Apparently,
Spin doesn’t care that both Senator Joseph Lieberman and Senator Blanche Lincoln, both Democrats, have served on the PTC’s Advisory Board; or that our late Honorary Chairman Steve Allen was a life-long Democrat; or that our current President, Tim Winter, is one also. The magazine concluded its article by shrugging off the issue of Cable Choice, saying readers shouldn’t “waste too much time deciding how much each individual cable network is worth to us.” No – media consumers should just be passive sheep who never question what the entertainment industry forces down their throats. Even if it’s urine.
The self-hyped “world’s greatest music magazine”
NME dishonestly claimed that, because we say people should actually have a choice about what they can buy with their own money, that therefore the PTC “favors censorship.” Because wanting not to be forced to pay for something you never use is
totally the same thing as being a book-burning Nazi. (“Hey, you – you in the restaurant. Here’s a side of squid eyeballs with your dinner. Even if you don’t eat it, it’s going on your bill. What do you mean, you won’t pay for it? What are you, some kind of fascist?”)
The Huffington Post approvingly opened its article with, “some might think it is daring for Ke$ha to drink her own urine.” We have to ask: just exactly who are these “some” that the HuffPost is talking about?
And demonstrating an almost unbelievable ability to miss the point, the humor-for-hipsters rag
The Onion A.V. Club oh-so-ironically noted, “And have fun watching the Golf channel, dorks.” Because if it’s a choice between watching a pop tart guzzle her own bodily fluids or watching a round of golf, everyone knows drinking urine is K3WLER!
Apparently, the folks at
Spin, the
A.V. Club, and the
Huffington Post are so accustomed to people drinking urine they’re totally blasé about paying almost $100 a month for the privilege of seeing it. But we doubt they speak for all progressives.
Now, this is not the first time that shallow, vapid pop stars have done shallow, vapid things to promote themselves. After all, Paris Hilton famously made a sex tape. However, MTV has not shown Hilton’s sex tape to millions of teens in prime time. (Yet.) Nor have they forced millions of pay-TV subscribers to PAY for the showing of the sex tape. But when it comes to drinking urine, it’s a different story.
But seriously: aren’t ANY of these publications in even the slightest way disgusted at this? Don’t ANY of them see the logic in allowing customers to pay for only they channels they want to watch? Can’t ANY of these journals understand the real point – that the greedy, corrupt entertainment industry is forcing millions of people to pay for programming they don’t want? And do they really think ALL progressives are okay with their children watching a pop star drink her own urine?
Is it so much more important to make a lame quip about urine than it is to “speak truth to power” (something journalists love to claim they do) by standing up for the rights of Americans not to be exploited? Are there any adults working in journalism anymore?
How can any of these so-called “journalists” defend this kind of programming -- and the fact that every pay-TV subscriber in America is forced to pay for it?
