You can't blame it on the alcohol

Please allow me one moment to vent. Hopefully I don’t get too out of line; but there is nothing better than an online debate among friends! As you can tell from my mini-tribute to Michael Jackson, I admire his talent and am saddened by his passing.

I was surprised and quite pleased by the depth of coverage by various media of not only his passing, but more importantly, his life. From Thursday evening until I left this morning, I was enveloped with all things MJ and from quite unlikely sources. The Today Show dedicated their entire morning telecasts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to MJ, his life, his music, his accomplishments. MTV was running a full tribute of concerts, videos, interviews. VH1 took it back to the days when they only played videos and it was Michael-mania. TV One showed past tributes and videos. CNN, Fox News, Headline News, MSNBC all based their shows on the life and legacy of Michael Jackson. Heck, even TV Land was running (on loop) the Jackson 5 story.

Am I missing anyone? Oh, yes….BET (Black Entertainment Television). One would expect the stalwart of Black television to pay homage to Michael Jackson. But no….they didn’t. They played homage to themselves and their 2009 BET Awards.

All weekend the only programming that BET ran was their trifling countdown to the BET Awards show. That was it!

I was so disgusted that I had to by-pass BET and rely on MTV and VH1 and at times, TV One for coverage. BET should have been the first logical place to start. MJ was our hero and our own Black Entertainment Television was not present at all.

Then, to add fuel to the fire, I tuned in for the Awards last night only to see buffoonery! Joe and Janet Jackson had to endure Souljah Boy, Blame it on the Alcohol and a tribute to new jack swing. Are you kidding me?

I understand that these artists have been rehearsing their numbers for a while, but couldn’t they have put together a more fitting tribute where the entertainers (if we can call them that) thought not of themselves and their album sales, but rather honoring MJ.



Ne yo was the only entertainer that I could give any credit because he did his part. New Edition tried too. But, I was really upset by the entire show and I am ashamed of BET for this display.

Maybe I’m giving them too much responsibility in terms of representing for Black people. I have long given up on that station because their programming is so poor and their representations of black people are so dissatisfactory.

The folks at BET need to step back and notice what their programming said about them this weekend. Hopefully, they can come back with a righteous tribute – maybe, I’ll watch. Just my two cents!