No Rock And Roll Fun

PULL YOU PUSH YOU DOWN: Ricky 'Not hitherto thought of as a genius' Martin has criticised "the media" for desensitising people to violence. Talking in Puerto Rico, Ricky said: "On my recent visit to India, I internalised that we cannot distance ourselves from the dispossessed, which need voices like ours so that the whole world can know their reality via the mass media.
"Entertainers have a prime responsibility to rescue the highest human values and translate them into a positive message of well-being, happiness, and peaceful co-existence."
Hmmm. Well, it's nice to see anyone taking an interest in the world about them, isn't it - although why Ricky needed to go off to India and "internalise" (does he mean 'thought'?) about it is questionable. But surely the point of the mass media isn't solely about making people "know their reality" (clearly, someone starving in Zambia doesn't need Emma Bunton to tell them they're starving - the function of entertainment is to, um, entertain. And there's nothing wrong with that. Ricky's on a tricky road, so we shouldn't take the piss too badly, but someone should offer to help him before he ends up a Bonoesque sloganeer making empty statements and facile gestures. So, Ricky - you've got the platform, we're listening: What do you actually have to say? Iraq, Enron, Asian Brown Cloud? We're listening...Expect 'Give Peace a rhumba' by Christmas [Ananova] - but kids, politics can be sexy...