June 29, 2009

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!



post signature

5 comments:

Justice Fergie said...

You are definitely not alone in feeling the way you do! We were watching last night too and were puzzled when Debra Lee (who I continue to believe is hopelessly clueless) thanked her staff for working to put together the MJ tribute at the last minute. Tribute? What tribute? Playing 3-second clips between acts? It was sad. I guess Neyo and Ciara tried. Even the tribute to the O'Jays was sad. I mean Tevin Campbell? Trey Songz? REALLY??

I'm not sure what's going on over at BET, but they continue to disappoint. Hopefully the come back and do a proper tribute to Michael.

Felicia (aka Mommy B) said...

Ooh. Dont' get me started on BET.. Damn, too late!

I gave up on BET a long time ago. Right around the time when other stations (i.e VH1) started tackling issues that BET should have been taking on years ago. Granted VH1 offers up it's share of buffoonery as well with those trifling-a** reality shows, but I'll watch the VH1 SOUL channel before I even think about turning to BET with their horrible sound technology and bad lighting. They can't get the basics like sound and lighting down, how the hell do they even dare think they can put together a fitting tribute for MJ. I didn't watch the awards show and I'm so glad I didn't.

Dee @ tifiblogs said...

I turned on BET last night for the first time in years just to see this last night. Wack!

Sapphire said...

Please. I'm spent on this topic, but needless to say, I tuned in just to say the tribute to MJ and instead was assaulted by Lil' Wayne singing about screwing every girl in the world while his pre-pubescent daughters danced on stage, Ving Rhames under the influence of something very potent and Jamie Foxx making completely irresponsible jokes about unprotected sex.
So. over. it!

Anonymous said...

I think one of my facebook friends said it well, "I wish BET had died and Michael Jackson had done a 4 hour tribute to them"

Related Posts with Thumbnails