Don’t be fooled by Madonna’s sudden patriotism
Tuesday April 1, 2003 at 6:13 pm
Some of you may have heard about Madonna's new video "American Life" which was characterized by The Drudge Report as "the most shocking anti-war, anti-Bush statement yet to come from the show business industry." Before it was even released, it made the headlines as an appalling display by the overwhelming left-wing Hollywood crowd (second only to Barbra Streisand's unrelenting hypocritical whining and vehement verbal abuse of non-Democrats). It would seem Madonna has had a change of heart. She announced today that she would be shelving the video out of respect for the troops fighting in Iraq. Who does she think she's kidding?
Aiming to portray the "catastrophic repercussions and horror of war," according to her publicist Liz Rosenberg, the violent, antiwar video was blasted by the political right and received an overwhelmingly negative response before it ever aired (scheduled to air on VH-1 this Friday).
In a written statement on her web site, Madonna said, "Due to the volatile state of the world and out of sensitivity and respect to the armed forces, who I support and pray for, I do not want to risk offending anyone who might misinterpret the meaning of this video."
Dare I say the truth of the matter is likely not what Madonna would have us believe?
Let's start with the basics — Madonna lives to offend people. I've been to a few of her concerts, and you can trust me on this. Suddenly not wanting to offend someone goes against everything Madonna has ever done. Sorry, not buying that one.
More importantly was the initial public reaction to the video based on screenings and news reports — a reaction so negative that the backlash against the video began before it was released. All of this gave rise to a sudden anti-Madonna feeling.
Of course, it's not all her fault considering the Hollywood machine has been doing such a bang-up job lately of spitting in the eye of American patriots, insulting the Bush administration (and at least half of the country with him), and forcing their undeniably liberal political views on the rest of America.
In this case, the truth of the video withdrawal has nothing to do with respect (who has ever put the word "respect" in the same sentence with Madonna's name without saying "lack of" first?). It's likely Madonna saw the unforgivable train wreck that her video was headed for if released and pulled it knowing it would fail anyway.
Good business savvy, yes, but bad public relations to tell such a blatant lie.
She could care less about our troops, and the American public knows it. She cares about the bottom line, and the initial reaction to the video clearly showed it was going to offend and distance the majority of her fans — meaning a very small bottom line indeed.
Sorry, Madonna. This southern boy is not fooled by your faux patriotism and sudden heartfelt respect for our troops. If your video is any indication, you'd just as soon spit on them as look at them.
Too late to backtrack now, my dear, and I hope the rest of your fans see through this attempt to play on current patriotic tendencies as the horrible display of selfish financial greed that it is.
jason
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