Now American Idol is Damaging more than just American Teenagers' Brains

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20070929/ca_pr_on_en/tv_indian_idol_riots_1

A part of me wishes that American Idol results sparked this much controversy when the results were given out. I do recall statements of vote tampering, etc. being thrown about by the media regarding last years results (why this was national news I don't know, but at least it wasn't about Anna Nichole Smith).

In Calcutta India, rioting has broken out and this time its not because of police brutality (Rodney King) or crappy performance at a Superbowl (Oakland Raiders). Its all because of the results of Indian Idol, an offshoot of American Idol. Apparently the mob started protesting after a radio host shock jock (no doubt the "Howard Stern" of Northeast India/West Bengal) issued several derogatory statements about the winner Prashant Tamang, an Indian of Nepalese descent. To deal with the crowd, who felt the radio host stepped over the line, the police used tear gas and batons. After all was said and done 60 people were injured including police officers

Ethnic tensions are strained in India with so many different groups and languages all identified by the world as "Indian". In the south the language spoken, Tamil, a Dravidian language, has remained largely unchanged linguistically for over two thousand years (though they have probably invented words for computer... and telephone... and "blogging"- though I sometimes wish there wasn't an English word for that one either). So it may seem ridiculous that you would riot over something so inert but c'mon America we are just as bad if not worse, usually our rioting includes looting for no apparent reason.

There is ultimately no reason to slight anyone who wants to punish themselves by being on Indian Idol. I'm sure that Prashant is a better singer than Taylor Hicks (and probably far less creepy). Prashant issued this statement following the riots, "violence has no place in song or music." Well tell that to U2, or maybe "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" is about drinking a bloody mary before church?