Newspaper Apologizes For Madonna-Spears Kiss Photo

[onehandle]

ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper apologized to readers Monday for using a picture of Britney Spears kissing Madonna on its front page Friday.

The picture, not much bigger than a postage stamp, was near the top of Friday's front page. It showed Spears and Madonna in an open-mouth kiss they shared at the MTV Video Music Awards the night before.

http://www.thecarolinachannel.com/entertainment/2446949/detail.html
___________________________________

The title should be: Newspaper apologizes for expressing freedom of speech.

I don't usually post silly crap like this in LBN, but I just wanted to give you folks some insight into the AJC. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the worst newspaper in a major American city. Our newspaper is now even more of an embarrassment. Wimps.

The only thing worth a Damn in the paper is Luckovich.
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/luckovich/


Tell them how you feel about their "apology" here:
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/letters/index.html

[wryter2000]

1. Hey

What about Cynthia Tucker? Isn't she one of yours?

[donco6]

2. That's pretty sad.

I can't believe they don't recognize Madonna's schtick. Actually, they're playing right into her hands.

[maggrwaggr]

3. It wasn't news, they shouldn't have run it on front page

it was a stupid publicity stunt that people bought into

[warrior1]

4. bet it sold alot of papers. nt

.

[Muddleoftheroad]

5. News

From dictionary.com:

news ( P ) Pronunciation Key (nz, nyz)
pl.n. (used with a sing. verb)

Information about recent events or happenings, especially as reported by newspapers, periodicals, radio, or television.
A presentation of such information, as in a newspaper or on a newscast.
New information of any kind: The requirement was news to him.
Newsworthy material: “a public figure on a scale unimaginable in America; whatever he did was news” (James Atlas).

It sure as hell fits all of those definitions.

[onehandle]

6. Not the point...

Whenever the Bush loving ring of boobs outside of Atlanta say "jump", the AJC says "how high?".

[rocktivity]

7. But the PURPOSE of the kiss was to generate headlines!

I agree that the Madonna/Spears mouth kiss photo wasn't the stuff of front page news. But the newspaper shouldn't apologize because they ran it, but because they were gullible enough to consider it newsworthy.

Madonna and Britney pay their bills by masquerading their sex appeal as talent. They have no choice but to be outrageous for the sake of it, which means that they either keep pushing envelope of appropriateness or cease to exist. No one would pay attention to them (or MTV, for that matter) otherwise. They are meant to be seen and not heard, so the kiss was just business as usual.


rocknation

[arcane1]

11. amen, RN!

hell it took a day to pass before I even knew about it :-)

[MRDU]

8. I agree

you can "read" this rag as fast as you can turn the pages. Besides Jay Bookman the GOP pandering is pathetic!

[otohara]

9. Sloppy Kiss??

Didn't look sloppy to me.

[oustemnow]

15. well, my lap was rather sloppy after

scrutinizing said photo for some time. Does that count?

[peterh]

10. A no-brainer to me…pictures of carnage or these….

:pals:

[RapidCreek]

23. Wow I never new Madonna was hearing impaired

She's got a big ole hearing aid in her ear! Learn something new every day.


RC

[IMayBeWrongBut]

25. I don't think it's a hearing aid.

Some singers use an earpiece so they can hear their own voice over the music.

[OrdinaryTa]

12. A Hot Same-Sex Kiss

Mustn't give the kiddies any ideas, can we?

[maggrwaggr]

13. Listen, how can you complain about the "whore" media and not complain

about this?

I mean talk about your distractions.

Sure, I'd much rather watch two women make out than deal with the real world, but the job of the fucking news media is to deal with the real world.

For too long, they've been distracting the masses with this kind of fluffy bullshit.

They need to be called on it.

[Muddleoftheroad]

14. Two famous same sex people kiss

Yes, it IS designed to make headlines. But it is also newsworthy in it's own way.

[maggrwaggr]

22. It's not a real kiss. It's staged, it's a stunt

How can you not see that otherwise?

[Muddleoftheroad]

24. It doesn't matter

Of course it's staged. Nevertheless, it was newsworthy. It was controversial. It involves one celeb who is about 40 years old and gained popularity for being, "like a virgin." Ir involves her successor in that category who is about two decades younger and only recently admitted to being no longer, "like a virgin." It involves a popular male fantasy including two big name celebrities. It smashes a taboo in a gender-bending skit. (Madonna played the husband, Brittany was one of her brides.)

The media covers what goes on in our society and what people talk about. Trust me, every guy I know is talking about "the kiss."

[smallprint]

16. the real issue is the apology

since when do newspapers apologize for putting violent gory images on the front page? or gratuitous hetero images for that matter?

but two women kissing.... uh oh LOOK OUT THEY'RE RECRUITING LESBEANS!! HIDE THE CHILDREN!!

[Scurrilous]

17. Britney and Madonna...

...are the co-winners of 2002's Razzie Award for worst actress (Britney for 'Crossroads' and Madonna for 'Swept Away'). Kudos to MTV for getting them both onstage together for this contrived publicity stunt. A more execrable TV moment would be hard to find.

[Voltaire99]

18. Not worse than the St. Paul Pioneer Press, surely!

Our birdcage liner can beat up your birdcage liner! ;-)

To be fair though, the AJC's hounding of Rep. Cynthia McKinney was despicable.

[dudeness]

19. I liked it

however a bit more tongue would have been nice!!

[chicaloca]

20. yes, it was silly and fluffy....

But I don't care what the AJC says. I don't think those are the real reasons they apologized for running the picture--it's really because it was (horrors!) a kiss between two women. If they didn't run stupid shit every day, I might believe them and agree with their decision, but what newspaper _doesn't_ occasionally run little postage-stamp size photos from the Entertainment section on the front page? They sure as hell don't apologize for those.

[LibInternationalist]

21. Let's see...

...do I agree with the apology, because of the picture's obvious un-newsworthiness, or do I protest because of apparent homophobia ... or do I even care?