June
25
Politics As Usual: Obama to Endorse Jay-Z, MTV to Accept His Money
Story by Andrew Barker
Reversing a 27-year policy, MTV announced today that it will begin accepting political advertising on all its networks not aimed at children. TV Week Reports:
"The channel, part of Viacom’s MTV Networks unit, says it will now take political ads, though only from political candidates and party political committees—not the third parties that often lob the biggest bombs."
"As recently as the presidential primaries this year, MTV had refused all political ads, even as it has heavily promoted its “Choose or Lose” get out the vote effort."
A presumably significant beneficiary of this policy would be youth-skewing Barack Obama, who revealed the contents of his iPod to Rolling Stone's Jann S. Wenner for the magazine's cover story, which went online today.
While the Senator has invoked Jay-Z several times before (whether intentionally or not), he now offers a full-fledged endorsement: “Every time I talk to Jay-Z, who is a brilliant talent and a good guy, I enjoy how he thinks,” says Obama, who believes that the recent political galvanization of America’s youth will soon be reflected in music. “He’s serious and he cares about his art,” he adds. “That’s somebody who is going to start branching out and can help shape attitudes in a real positive way.”
(Also on the prospective presidential playlist: The entirety of Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" as well as the rip-snorting "Maggie's Farm," and all five records from Stevie Wonder's '70s golden period. Considering that the current office-holder finds later-period Beatles too "weird" for his tastes, this has to be considered a step in the right direction.)
Subscribe to this blog's feed
Comments