4A the university daily kansan
opinion
tuesday,september 9,2003
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Man, if it weren't for the weather, what would people talk about?
perspective
If KJHK DJs didn't list every song that they played, then you would never know what song they were playing. That is kind of the purpose.
perspective
Listen, I just saw a parked car that got a ticket for an unattended vehicle. I was just wondering, isn't the reason for parking?
perspective
I just found out that my roommate can't tell time.
I swear I just saw Mr. Roboto in the elevator.
I would just like to give a heads-up to the dumbass that is driving the wrong way down Tennessee on a Friday night.
perspective
perspective
Butthead.
--perspective
perspective
If you get a chance to see the Fabulous Life of Young Hot Pop Stars on VH1, I would definitely check it out. It definitely proves that we should download music from Kazaa, because these people have more money than they'll ever know what to do with.
I just want to know where all of the cut chubby guys are hiding. There are too many Abercrombie models here.
perspective
I am a swan with several chipmunk limbs
perspective
Are you sorority girls serious about
frolicking in the fountain? A) Get a life. B)
You wonder why people stereotype you
girls. Get a life. Go home.
I don't want to study anymore and you can't make me.
This is the guy in the black Explorer that was kind enough to take 11 girls to the Phi Psi party on Saturday night. Thanks a lot for inviting us in.
perspective
Bush is asking Congress for more money this week. Why doesn't he just ask his friends? You know, the richest one percent of his friends.
perspective
They may be drunks, Robin, but they are people too.
perspective
I am a pedestrian and I have the right of way. I'll see you for my education. Keep that in mind.
图
To the guy who was running down the hill on 15th Street because he was late to class: I would like to say thank you, because that is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time.
the truth hurts
Elizabeth Willy for The University Daily Kansan
Idols embrace risque images
It's official: Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera have abandoned their Mickey Mouse Show roots to embrace images a bit more thrilling. At this rate, they may break into the porn industry before the end of the year.
In case you haven't seen the numerous repeats, an opening number at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards featured both performers sharing an intimate kiss with icon Madonna.
COMMENTARY
Ashley Smith
ominton@hansan.com
For those of us who have followed this pair through the course of their fame, their childhood personalities differ substantially from the ladies we see on the stage today. Looking back at their first music videos,...Baby One More Time and Genie in a Bottle, we see two very innocent and decently dressed young women. Since then, the videos have become more and more racy, the clothing less and less altogether.
So what is it that has driven these ladies so far from where they started? It goes back to the classic rule of fame: If you want to stay at the top, sex sells.
When young Mouseketeers Spears and Aguilera watched their idol Madonna perform on television all those years, they were probably thinking about how incredibly talented she was, and how she completely captivated her audience. But can you see those little girls back then thinking about making out with their idol?
One major threat driving has been the constant fear of competition. Not just
Aguilera, on the other hand, decided to
Evidence of this constant clash can always be seen at what seems to be the battle ground for the girls, award shows. Spears shocked everyone in her affectionately nicknamed "striptease" performance during the VMA's a few years ago, in which she appeared in a skin-colored body suit clad only in sparkles. This seemed a turning point for her. From there, her image became more and more exotic, from her breakdown in trying to save herself for marriage, to her breakup with Justin Timberlake due to her unfaithfulness. Spears proved her words, "I'm not that innocent."
between the two, but among the seemingly constant flow of women in line to take their place. We've seen so many of them come through the line, from Spears' carbon copy Jessica Simpson, to one-hit-wonders such as Willa Ford, Spears and Aguilera must always look better, enhance their performances and have more impact than their rivals.
send her shock wave through the music video Dirtry, quite possibly the most controversial in years. She topped it off with a nearly nude photo shoot in Maxim, a popular men's magazine. Since the video, she seems to have gone a little off the deep end, dying her hair jet-black and piercing herself in every place imaginable. She went on tour this summer with Timberlake just to add a little slap in the face.
Although these women began by similar means and are in nearly the same place in their careers, there is one issue they dramatically split on. While Spears still outwardly clings to morality, Aguilera embraces her new naughty image.
In a recent CNN interview about the kiss, Spears defended her innocent image, saying, "I think I'm still clean-living. I mean, I don't go home and have orgies or anything like that."
in a recent interview with MTV, Aguilera, newly nicknamed "X-tina," fully admits her transformation. "I just get really bored with sticking to the norm and having the proper conservative image," she said. "That's just so not me."
that's just so not true.
So maybe pornography isn't in the cards just yet, but these two cut it pretty close. These kisses are simply the icing on the cake. From idolizing Madonna as little girls, to making out with her as adults, the MTV stunt is the final coup de grace for their corruption, all for the sake of the spotlight.
Smith is a Tulsa sophomore in journalism.
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perspective
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You can help save American broadcasting
I'm Rachel from Baldwin City, and I saved The Buzz. I think we can save the rest of American broadcasting, too.
COMMENTARY
Early this summer, the owners of KRBZ, a Kansas City alternative rock radio station also known as "The Buzz," paid attention to thousands of listeners who signed petitions and sent e-mails begging that the station's format not be changed. Astonishingly, the pleas of listeners like me were heeded. Entercom, KRBZ's parent company, left the station alone, rather than changing it to air sportstalk or country music as had been threatened.
Rachel Robson opinion@kansan.com
About the same time, the Federal Communications Commission utterly ignored the pleas of millions of listeners not to change the rules that govern media ownership.
On June 2, three of the five FCC commissioners approved new rules, which would allow a few companies to own even more of the already monopolized and homogenized media market. Major media conglomerates such as Clear Channel Communications — which owns more than 1,200 radio stations and two-thirds of the concert industry in the United States — and News Corporation — which owns several newspapers and the FOX network — lobbied hard for the changes, and worked harder to ensure that the American public not know of them.
In spite of the scant coverage given to the impending rule change by the mega-media, the FCC received 2.3 million
comments on the issue before June 2. More than 99 percent of the comments urged that the rules not be changed. Opposition to the new FCC rules came from across the political spectrum.
"When so many disparate organizations—groups ranging from the Catholic Conference to Common Cause, from the Family Research Council and the NRA to MoveOn, the Writer's Guild and NOW—when all of us are united ... either the earth has spun off its axis and we have all lost our minds, or there is universal support for a concept," said Brent Bozell, whose social-conservative Parents Television Council is part of the strange coalition fighting the rule change.
The FCC didn't listen. The votes of three Republican FCC commissioners were more important than the objections of 2.3 million Americans in deciding the fate of American media, FCC Chairman Michael Powell, son of Secretary of State Colin Powell and the author of the new, conglomerate-friendly rules, magnanimously thanked those 2.3 million Americans for their input after blithely disregarding it.
The Senate is expected to pass Senate Joint Resolution 17, vetoing the new FCC rules, said Barry Piatt, a spokesperson for Sen. Byron Dorgan (D.N.D.), the resolution's sponsor. If it passed, a similar bill would likely be taken up by the House of Representatives.
But they can't do it without our help. The monopolists who thought they had won last June will not go down without a fight, and neither should we. We must remind our congressmen now that the public airwaves belong to American citizens, and that we have the right to determine who uses them, not three unelected, unresponsive FCC bureaucrats.
But the public's wishes weren't disregarded by everyone. Before breaking for summer recess, the House of Representatives defied both its Republican leadership and the wishes of President George W. Bush and passed a bill that reversed part of the FCC ruling by a 400-to-21 vote margin. Last week, a Philadelphia federal court stayed the implementation of the new rules, preventing them from going into effect until they have been reviewed by the judiciary and legislature. The Senate will likely vote this week on a congressional veto of the FCC rules.
Sign the petition at www.mediareform.net/petition, or better yet, call or email your Kansas senators and urge them to vote yes on Senate Joint Resolution
I saved The Buzz this summer — sort of. KRBZ, owned by a huge broadcasting corporation, will always be in danger of an overnight format change. Entercom had to pay attention to what listeners wanted this summer because it doesn't have a total monopoly on the Kansas City area airwaves yet. But as the airwaves are controlled by ever fewer companies, the public has less say about what is broadcast to them. That's why the new FCC rules, allowing a single company to own more media than ever before, must be stopped now.
17. Sen. Sam Brownback's phone number is (202)-224-6521, or e-mail sam_brownback@brownback.senate.gov. Findl Sen. Pat Roberts' e-mail at www.roberts.senate.gov, or call him at (202)474-4774. Tell Rep. Dennis Moore at 842-9313 or Rep. Jim Ryun at (202)256-6601 to vote for legislation to stop the FCC rule changes from taking effect. The e-mail form for all representatives is at www.house.gov/writerep.
Activism this summer saved The Buzz, as far as a corporate radio station can be saved. But it's more important that activism saves the airwaves themselves from further predation by corporate behemoths. Sign a petition, make a phone call or write an e-mail.
We saved one radio station this sum mer. Now, let's try to save our airwaves.
Robson is a Baldwin City doctoral student
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