Sometimes I just have to say, “what the fuck?” and the royal we doesn’t work as well. These are my thoughts—raronauer
Listen, I like MTV. And not just the smart person dumb shows, like The Hills and True Life. I watch, and enjoy, the Real World Challenges.
I don't mind the channel’s shift away from videos either. (Thanks YouTube!) While all those documentaries about AIDS in the early 90s definitely scared me straight, voyeuristic reality TV is so much more entertaining. Besides, the kids today seem to be too busy getting text message updates about their MySpace page to know what they’re missing.
But every four years, MTV likes to pretend that it has some cultural relevancy. Coincidentally, so does John Edwards. The two have combined their shared desire to be taken seriously, and both look worse for it.
John Edwards owns MTV news. Earlier this week, there were five stories on him. Today, after the MTV/MySpace dialogue, there are nine. As some perspective, The New York Times’s piece on the debates doesn't have any pictures.
Maybe this is because I was nine when Bill Clinton was first elected, but ’92 seemed like MTV’s election. More than Ross Perot or the Gennifer Flowers scandal, the most memorable part of that election was the “boxers or briefs” question at an MTV Rock the Vote event with Clinton.
But MTV is never going to have that moment again. Barack Obama isn’t going to answer that question, not because it is beneath him, but because MTV is beneath him. Outside of my small demographic, most people watching MTV are either too young to vote or of age, but too lazy to do so. MTV is just not an efficient medium to reach the youth vote.
But for someone in John Edwards’s position, who has less charm than Barack Obama and less money than Hillary Clinton, any coverage is good coverage.
The lead story on MTV News begins,
A relaxed John Edwards seemed to win over an attentive University of New Hampshire crowd Thursday afternoon (September 27) during the first MTV/MySpace Presidential Dialogue by doing something many professors might want to try: talking to the students, not at them.
You can’t pay for that kind of PR. But you can shill to MTV for it.
Editorial Director
Wow, this guy is falling faster than the Hindenburg.
Whats wrong with you people?? MTV is reporting on Edwards because he a someone that realizes that just because statistics say people that watch mtv dont vote they still deserve to know who is representing them. And, deserve to have a candidate go out of his way to speak to them through medimum they are familar with. If you accept that Obama thinks mtv is beneath him, then you accept that he believes that a enourmous amount of the American pulic is beneath him. I'd rather have someone that values every American's life equally, rather than someone that assigns value based upon the television channel they watch — especially, when that person decides the Wars WE fight.
Again, admit it. You're a moonbat!
actually - the articles were because they were doing a forum with edwards. I would imagine that when they do the Romney forum, they will be doing a lot of articles about him.
Don't you think MTV News should be appluaded for putting some resources towards educating it's viewers?