No Rock And Roll Fun

IDOL CHECKS: Fox TV are doing their best to ensure that nobody interesting in any way sneaks by accident onto American Idol by running background checks into virtually everyone who wants to take part. They're afraid of strippers and ex-cons appearing on their show, but we're not sure why it matters so much if someone's done their sentence; what's a lot scarier is the implicit threat that if you don't live up to Fox's idea of a perfect citizen, you don't deserve to be in the charts - coupled with the thought of Murdoch's lackeys snooping in people's private business before they can take part in a bloody karaoke contest.