I’d like to echo the words of Beck: “MTV makes me want to smoke crack.” Last week, I had the unfortunate experience of watching the MTV Video Music Awards for the first time in a number of years.

It was also probably the first time I’ve watched MTV for more than three minutes since the first time I saw Bush. I kind of swore off the station at that time.

But I knew sooner or later the chip in my brain would start beeping, and I would be drawn back to MTV again. So I sat on my couch for damn near three hours watching the biggest cable channel’s biggest event of the year.

Of course, I asked myself if the reason for my disdain for the event could possibly be my advancing age. There was a time when I would rush home from school every day to watch Guns ‘n’ Roses’ “November Rain” video on MTV’s Most Wanted. Is the problem merely that I’ve aged beyond MTV’s target audience?

Partly, the answer is yes. There probably isn’t any more crap on MTV now than there ever was, but that’s not entirely the issue anyway. As MTV has grown and changed, its role in both the music and news industry has also changed dramatically. And the change certainly has been for the worse.

Probably the most common criticism of Music Television of late has been the decided lack of music. The only things getting more airtime than “The Real World” are Noxzema commercials.

For God’s sake, there is even a show where people sit around, watch old episodes of “The Real World” and provide running commentary.

But even though you’d have better luck finding a bathroom in Marston than a video on MTV, the station still has a tremendous effect on the music industry.

The problem is that where MTV once reflected what was going on in the music industry, to a large degree they now dictate what goes on.

It’s kind of like when silent movies evolved into “talkies,” and stars who didn’t have the best speaking abilities were out. Kind of like that, in reverse.

Because somewhere along the way, MTV became the biggest source of exposure for musicians in America. Since television is a visual media, that has naturally lead to “pretty” performers taking precedent over “talented” performers.

As a result, questionably talented bands such as Bush have garnered huge mass appeal, while more talented artists of nearly the same genre, for instance Frank Black and Matthew Sweet, have had little commercial success.

The reason is obvious. Bush frontman Gavin Rosdale is a pretty boy, while Black and Sweet are two of the ugliest men in America.

When visual appeal becomes more important than quality musicianship, the integrity of the station has to come into question.

But broadcasting poor quality music is only one of MTV’s sins. Perhaps an even bigger sin is “MTV News.”

The irony there is that the station that became famous for never showing the same thing for more than four seconds is now considering itself an excellent source for news.

They are actually running a commercial now asking for people who have been affected by AIDS to share their stories in an upcoming special. They request that people put their story into a two- to four-minute video, and mail it to MTV.

How unbelievably insensitive is that?

“We know that AIDS has devastated your life, but please limit the story of your life to under four minutes, so people won’t get bored.” Or, perhaps more likely, “so we can show another Noxzema commercial.”

Most television media news sources are guilty of substituting the sound-bite for the news story, but probably no one to the extent that MTV is.

This all probably seems irrelevant to most of us. It’s not as though commercial success is necessary or even always desirable for every band. And most of us know better than to turn to MTV for news.

After all, we’re in college and more than capable of separating reality from MTV. But college students aren’t the people I’m worried about.

I’m worried about the young people in smaller communities across the country. We have access to things like college radio, but not everyone is so lucky.

In the major mass media, MTV is about the only thing aiming at young people that contains music and news. If they present biased news and poor quality music, where are these kids going to turn?

Parents used to worry that MTV would pervert their children’s minds.

While that obviously won’t happen, it is safe to say that MTV has a major effect on shaping the opinions of the youth of America. That is a tremendous responsibility, and it’s a shame MTV doesn’t do more with it.

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Ben Godar is a senior in sociology from Ames.