You know what seems like it’d be a great job? Choosing which songs to play to announce stories and people on news programs and talk shows. Think of the control you have! The viewers’ minds will forever bear the connotation of the issue or figure in question with the musical number you have chosen. You can make the world love these things, or hate them. You are the most powerful being on Earth…
Until someone gets ticked off, anyway. CNN was the perpetrator of a pretty controversial soundtrack assignment on Sunday morning, when a story about Sarah Palin (and her support of Chik-fil-A’s public anti-gay marriage stance) was introduced with the song “Stupid Girls” by Pink.
CNN did feel the need to apologize after criticism from venues like NewsBusters. A CNN spokesperson told MediaIte, “The music selection was a poor choice and was not intended to be linked to any news story. We regret any perception that they were planned together.”
The act is hardly unprecedented, however. Other polarizing figures like Palin have been met with less-than-complimentary themes. As you may recall, one Michele Bachmann endured the same fate on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, courtesy of the house band The Roots, who played “Lyin’ Ass Bitch” upon her entrance.
Sometimes, the victims of these ordeals are not individual people, but entire countries. In March, the nation of Kazakhstan was represented by Maria Dmitrienko, the victor of the 10th Arab Shooting Championship in Kuwait. Instead of playing her true national anthem, however, the offensive parody song from the Sacha Baron Cohen movie Borat was broadcast as Dmitrienko took the stage.
In a much less jarring example, everyone recalls the “song slip-up” that both swelled and ruined Ashlee Simpson’s career back during her 2004 appearance on Saturday Night Live.
Yes, this sort of thing happens all the time. New York City, Kuwait, even Metrocity. No one is safe from the curse of the poorly planned musical arrangement. Not even a criminal mastermind.
Ah, the power of music…
[Photo Credit: WENN]
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