No More Britney
Online- plenty of you are talking about Britney Spears. On-air, a fair number of you emailed to say, No More Britney. Others said, let's talk about why we're obsessed with celebrity - is it because of boredom, laziness, materialism, a fascination with grim public spectacle? And a few said, 'yes, it's important to talk about Britney, if only to examine what effect celebrity culture has.'
I've never spent much time reading about Britney Spears before today. I have to say I'm still pretty undecided about whether or not it was right to talk about the attention she's been receiving.
The majority of NO BRITNEY messages came from those of you in America who emailed while we were on air to say, 'We get enough useless celeb news here.' But Togo in Kampala texted to say, "Britney is part of the social fabric! Go on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ, balance the 'diet'. Let's talk about her."
So here's our very unscientific tally: Out of a total of 196 messages that came in while we were on-air, 51 said, NO BRITNEY ON THE ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ. That's roughly a quarter of you. I did promise we'd stop talking about it immediately, if enough of you said so. For those who found it too objectionable, I hope you'll tune in tomorrow in the knowledge that while we did talk about Britney today, we explained fully why we decided to. And that you as the audience always shape what makes it to air.
Tomorrow, we'll take up Muhammad Asim Munir's suggestion that it's time to talk about Pakistan. The presidential election is on Saturday.... it's been a tremendously tumultuous time there, with protests and opposition against President/General Pervez Musharraf growing. Osama bin Laden is more popular in Pakistan according to one reputable poll, than Mr. Musharraf... Is democracy possible in Pakistan? How can the people of Pakistan achieve it? Why does the rest of world shy away from calling Pervez Musharraf a dictator, as categorically as they do with Burma's generals?
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