Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

Hey AUE'ers!  What's this thing that's been talked about re: MJ, an
"arraignment"?  Will that be the trial?  Does anyone know what date MJ's
"arraingment" thing is?  And, if so, *please* explain the word to me.  What
will happen on the date and what will the media show?  How long will it take
place?

The reason for all the questions is this:

http://www.mtv.com/onair/schedule/mtv2/daily.jhtml?day=01%2F16%2F04

http://tv.yahoo.com/tvpdb?d=tvs&id=166032294&lineup=us_NJ29444d&channels=u
s_MTV2&.intl=us&startdate=1074211200

http://tv.yahoo.com/tvpdb?d=tvp&id=168577808&cf=0&lineup=us_NJ29444d&chann
els=us_MTV2&chspid=166032294&chname=MTV2%3a+Music+Television&title=Greates
t+Hits&progutn=1074265200&.intl=us

Please check the above three links.  The first is the MTV2 program schedule for
next Friday, the 16th.  Although MTV2 was created in 1996 to showcase freeform
music videos 24/7/365, of late the channel's quality has severly waned, as
they've opted to flood MTV2 with reruns of MTV1 documentaries, artist
biographies, countdowns, and episodes of The Osbournes, Cribs, Diary, etc.  So,
it is quite odd to see a block of "music videos" from 10 AM through 6 PM, smack
in the middle of a Friday afternoon, preempting MTV2's "normal" weekday
schedule.

The second link is from Yahoo TV.  Notice that the 10 AM slot is listed as
"Greatest Hits".  "Greatest Hits" is an MTV2 show, which is either an hour or
1/2 hour long, and showcases nothing but videos from a specific one artist for
the entire period.  Someone like Jay-Z, who has some 35-40-ish music videos,
only got an hour's "Greatest Hits" episode, so usually only the biggest of the
biggest of an artist's videos are played.  "Greatest Hits" replaced the far
superior show, "Artist Collection", which was usually *at least* an hour long
for each artist.  In the case of those with many videos, it was even longer.
For example, Janet Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Ozzy Osbourne, Prince,
Run-D.M.C., & Bob Marley originally had 2-hour long "Artist Collections" (more
recently, Ozzy's & Springsteen's were shortened to an hour); the Beastie Boys
got 3 hours worth of videos; and Madonna & U2 both got 4 hours of video time
during their Artist Collections.

Since the cheapening of the channel, none of the above artists has gotten a
"Greatest Hits" episode, with the exception of the Beastie Boys; instead
"Greatest Hits" tends to focus on the more popular musicians of here and now,
such as Pink, Mya, the White Stripes, Jay-Z, Ludacris, TLC, No Doubt, P.O.D.,
Linkin Park, R. Kelly, Fabolous, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tupac Shakur, &
Aaliyah.  The Beastie Boys, oddly, have had a "Greatest Hits" episode, however
it was only 1/2 hour, rather than 3 hours like their original "Artist
Collection" was.

Given all this, if you check the third link, it indeed states that MJ's
"Greatest Hits" is 480 minutes (8 HOURS!! Twice as long as Madonna & U2's
previous collections).  However, it lists the original airdate as "11/21/03",
during which MJ's one hour "Artist Collection" was simply upgraded to an hour
long "Greatest Hits" (I'm almost positive).  Or, is it possible that Nov 21st
was the date when MJ was originally arrested?  

The reason I am asking this is because MTV2, being run by Viacom, is sometimes
know to purposely sabotage their own ratings, in order to drive viewers to one
of their "sister channels".  This was done for MTV1's 2003 VMA's, during which
time MTV2 aired a 10 or 12 hour block of "Subterranean", a generally late-night
show, which doesn't get huge ratings, that focuses exclusively on new and
underground music videos and bands.  My best guess is that their "Subterranean
Marathon" was hugely unsuccessful, from a business P.O.V., and forced the
majority of MTV2's teenage viewership over to MTV1 for the night.  So, is it
possible that MTV2 is trying to push its viewers over to, say, sister channel
CBS on next Friday?  Is an "arraignment" the type of thing CBS would cover?

Also, is there any way of confirming whether MJ's 11/21/03 "Greatest Hits" was,
indeed, 8 hours?  Any help would be appreciated, since a collection of MJ music
videos on one tape would make my day, and would entertain my friends
*shitloads* next semester.  I'm sure even you guys find MJ entertaining, don't
you?  How can you not love the guy/girl/thing?