What’s been obvious to some for quite a while now – but I didn’t really start taking exception to until after CNN.com’s redesign a few months back – is that the mainstream news has become absolutely infested with celebrity trash. A few weeks back the 1st most popular story on CNN was about Paris Hilton, the 2nd about Jude Law, and the 3rd about Lindsey Lohan. This is not just what people find the most appealing, or rate the most popular, this is actually what the most people are reading! That is just scary.

Today another perfect example. The Britney Spears “comeback” at the MTV Video Music Awards. Jesus Christ. Who cares? If it didn’t happen to be the 6th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history today and Osama bin Laden didn’t happen to release another taped message, I have absolutely no doubt this would be the most popular story – by far.

Read the Britney Spears’ story, go ahead, I’ll wait. Even the article itself reads like a cross between a trashy novel and an issue of Teen Beat!. Who the hell does CNN have writing for them now? When the story isn’t oozing over the crowds’ reaction to Spears, it’s hyping the brush-up between Kid Rock and Tommy Lee. Wow. It then goes on to tell us what Jermaine Dupri and Jaime Foxx yelled out at the after party. This is real embedded journalism.

Not to sound too high-and-mighty. Well, why mince words – yes, to sound all high-and-mighty: Wake up America! I stopped watching any MTV awards show sometime before the ‘teen’ was dropped from the end of my age – and I really should have stopped long before then seeing the trend they were headed towards. Their award shows used to be considered hip and edgey – now every single one is just more lame and fake than the previous with people clearly just watching to see what celebrity will make a bigger ass of themself.

MTV as a whole has managed to transform itself in its 20-plus years from a music channel into a promotional vehicle for a flaming heap of no-talent ass clowns. Vh1 is arguably worse as it’s chock-full of shows often featuring rejects from ass clown school – but at least they don’t take themselves quite as seriously. But lets be honest here, neither channel should have their respective names anymore. Viacom: can you re-brand MTV as ‘Sleaze’ and Vh1 as ‘Tongue-in-Cheek Sleaze’? Save the MTV and Vh1 names for channels that actually show – you know – music videos.

I’m not saying I think that everyone has to be all serious and on-point all the time – I in fact just rediscovered The Onion for the first time in about a year, hilarious stuff, and for us more tech-oriented folk, Valleywag is a riot at times – I’m just saying when celebrity gossip crap starts spilling into the real news at an alarming rate, I feel myself getting more and more worried about the future of America. Perez Hilton is great at what he does – but that doesn’t mean he should be writing for CNN (instead he gets a show on Vh1, which coincidentally is starting tonight).

Yes, Britney Spears’ life is in shambles. Yes, it’s somewhat interesting to see how far someone can fall so fast. But if you’re CNN, do a serious piece on her downfall, don’t give me some gossip-filled account of what Jamie Foxx yelled while drunk at an after-party. If Britney Spears’ life somehow ends in tragedy we, as a country, should probably feel partially responsible – but we won’t. Instead we’ll talk about this kind of ridiculous coverage being “price of fame” and say how sad it is while really just wanting to read about the juicy details and hoping to God there are pictures.

So it’s September 11th and Osama bin Laden holds the top spot for most read item on CNN today, but tomorrow is September 12th, and you know damn well the most read story is going to be about Britney Spears’ life spiraling down the drain. That is unless Lindsay Lohan beats her back to rehab.

[UPDATE 2:00AM]: Yeah so about the Osama bin Laden story being #1, nevermind – Britney Spears has already overtaken it. It’s September 11th, the mastermind behind the terrorist attacks has a new video out, and Britney Spears at the VMAs is the most popular story on CNN. Sad.

On a side note, this article is the #1 article currently in the ‘From the Blogs’ section under the Osama bin Laden tape story, but NOT under the Britney Spears story. Go figure.
(Thanks LJ)

For more on the degradation of the VMAs and the whole story on the fiasco check out The Plugg’s article.