What Passes For Entertainment These Days

Let me get this straight. CBS refuses ads from MoveOn.org and PETA on the theory that advocacy advertising will upset their footall-loving audience during the game. No one watching wants their rowdy fun interrupted or ruined by angry political stuff, is how the thinking goes.

But for the half-time show, it's perfectly OK for one singer to expose another singer's breast, even if it is pasty-covered? Because this is T&A, which is quite all-American? I have nothing against Janet Jackson's breasts, they're quite nice, but Jeez we keep sinking lower and lower on the...er, boob tube. I want to feel disappointed, but this is so typical. Sex sells. Awfully well, too. Porn is a bigger film business than Hollywood; online sex is the single largest profitable part of the Internet.

But this just seems so tawdry. So "aren't we daring?", when in fact they are not. It's yet another reason why I watch less television than ever before. I now spend more time watching DVDs each week than watching television. I find it hard to imagine what might draw me back.

On a completely different note, did anyone else notice how much Janet's face looked like what Michael's face ought to look like? If he hadn't chemically and surgically mutilated it, that is. It's really spooky. In that picture, we get a strong hint of what Thriller- and Bad- era Mike was growing into naturally, a great what-if kind of moment. It's also a shame he's so obsessed on being a scary white teenager and not a handsome black man.