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| Madonna courts controversy again over McCain video
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Tue Aug 26, 7:16 PM
By Alex Dobuzinskis
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Madonna has always reveled in controversy and with the recent launch of her concert tour, "Sticky & Sweet," the 50-year-old pop star has kicked up a new fuss by comparing John McCain to Adolf Hitler in a video.
The dust-up is the latest in a career of risky moves that have paid off handsomely for Madonna, whose tours and albums have long mixed music with politics, sex and religion. While other stars rose to fame in the 1980s then faded away, "Material Girl" Madonna has become a global star and even courted controversy to stay relevant to younger audiences.
"Madonna seems to be an extraordinarily brilliant business woman in the business of culture," said Robert Thompson, a professor of media at and pop culture at Syracuse University.
"She's controlled her controversy, so every time she's been in controversy it does her good not bad," he told Reuters.
As her world tour opened in Cardiff, Wales, over the weekend, Madonna showed a video montage juxtaposing images of Hitler with McCain, the Republican senator from Arizona running for president against Democratic Sen. Barack Obama. The Democrats on Monday launched their nominating convention.
McCain's campaign blasted Madonna with a campaign spokesman telling media organizations that the video was "outrageous, unacceptable and crudely divisive."
Abraham Foxman, national director for Jewish group The Anti-Defamation League also issued a statement calling it "outrageous to invoke Nazi imagery in the context of John McCain's candidacy."
In 2005, Rabbis criticized Madonna over a song, "Isaac," that they said used an inappropriate reference to a 16th century mystic. Madonna also has drawn the ire of the Vatican over sexual themes such as simulating masturbation on stage.
Her 1989 song "Like A Prayer," with links between religion and eroticism, caused Pepsi-Cola to cancel a sponsorship deal.
In 1992, she released a book called "Sex" with nude pictures of the star that caused a media sensation, and in 2003 her same-sex kiss with Britney Spears at MTV's Video Music Awards proved to be yet another celebrity news firestorm.
While Thompson noted that Madonna has successfully boosted her career in the past with controversy, he added that celebrities should speak their minds if they want.
"The whole notion of a democratic republic is that this wasn't just about politicians, that anyone could shoot their mouth off about whatever they wanted to," Thompson said.
But David Horowitz, a conservative writer and activist, took a more dim view of Madonna's latest controversy.
"We're in a sad situation if we're turning to entertainers for political wisdom," he told Reuters.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/080826/n_entert...
Youtube video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5R5iskRkcY |
| User | Comment |
|---|
| JessicaWoman99 | | posted 30-Aug-2008 2:38pm |
Madonna and Britney Spears they are twin cousins |
Melf    | | posted 30-Aug-2008 2:41pm |
Godwin's Law. It's kind of sad really - Hitler was far more/worse than 'bad polititian'. I was on Yahoo! Answers (I'm so, so, sorry) the other day and people were comparing Obama to Hitler (the similarities were pretty much 'good at public speaking'. Eh.) It's like 'ooh, he's discriminatory to a minority - So was Hitler! |
| JessicaWoman99 | | posted 30-Aug-2008 2:44pm |
Rating 100% great job Iseult? |
| JessicaWoman99 | | (reply to Melf) posted 30-Aug-2008 2:48pm |
> Godwin's Law. It's kind of sad really - Hitler was far more than 'bad
> polititian'. I was on Yahoo! Answers (I'm so, so, sorry) the other
> day and people were comparing Obama to Hitler (the similarities were
> pretty much 'good at public speaking'. Eh.) It's like 'ooh, he's discriminatory
> to a minority - So was Hitler!
Melf so you were on Yahoo Answers as well and yes it gets nasty on there comparing Obama to Hitler wow" You should
go to Topix News gee they really slug it out and lots of racial slurs it is very ugly and sad to see America this way |
| Melf |
Yahoo Answers is really depressing. So many people ask questions on there they could answer themselves with a minute on wikipedia. The UK version is just as bad (but generally with 'wanker' instead of 'douchebag' *smile* ). I hadn't heard Topix News. It's a good idea for a website. |
Crayons  | | posted 30-Aug-2008 3:25pm |
Uhhh wow. Hitler can not be compared to anyone. In fact, if he had goals for.. not burning people, he could have been really great. No.
Now, compare Mccain to George Bush, that's more like it. |
| Cain | | posted 30-Aug-2008 4:02pm |
I would guess that Madonna idn't herself think 'Hmmmmmmm, McCain reminds me of Hitler and I'll tell the world that.' Someone will have come with it, so that we all talk about it, and her. Job done. |
| JessicaWoman99 | | (reply to Melf) posted 30-Aug-2008 4:04pm |
> Yahoo Answers is really depressing. So many people ask questions on
> there they could answer themselves with a minute on wikipedia. The
> UK version is just as bad (but generally with 'wanker' instead of
> 'douchebag' *smile* ). I hadn't heard Topix News. It's a good idea
> for a website.
Yea they say wanker it is just so funny! cracks me up tehe plus you have to be extra careful!! what you say on Yahoo Answers because you end up with a Violation notice email and they do boot you off unless you change your email?
Yes Topix your town your news is a good news site and oh the Religious section gee that is fun! LOL |
| kirst | | posted 30-Aug-2008 4:56pm |
Haven't seen this...but comparing McCain to Hitler is over the top. Madonna is a media whore...anything to get attention. |
| llamamama | | posted 30-Aug-2008 6:16pm |
Uh..yeah..a little. |
bill   | | posted 30-Aug-2008 6:29pm |
I don't care. |
| Phenomanon | | posted 30-Aug-2008 7:18pm |
I am thankful that I live in a country where free speech is still free! Whether I agree with her or not is not the issue here. She did not go too far, it's her oppinion. If you don't want to agree you don't have to. |
| Galomorro | | posted 30-Aug-2008 8:15pm |
She needs to have something new that's controversial - she hasn't had one in a while and there's lot of competition out there. Anything to shock. |
LindaH  | | posted 30-Aug-2008 11:22pm |
She can go as far as she wants to. She's free to speak her mind just like the rest of us. |
| ausfox | | posted 31-Aug-2008 5:31am |
Nah, I'm a fan, I wouldn't say she's gone too far. |
| cloudhugger | | posted 31-Aug-2008 7:30am |
Compared with what else she has done in the past, it doesn't look any worse...but  yikes that is just .
I have always known she is a genious in the marketing part of her business. But I never really gave much attenion to it, and I didn't invest in any on it either. What bothers me as much as using Hitler as a sales campaign is ignorant people ranting about what they know little of. I imagine a bunch of church ladies clutching their purses with red faces and nets holding all their litle grey hairs in place as they stomp around yelling about hell and stuff. But using Hitler is...tacky at most. |
| cloudhugger | | (reply to Iseult) posted 31-Aug-2008 7:34am |
Curious why you didn't go with options. I wonder how many yesses and nos. |
| cloudhugger | | posted 31-Aug-2008 7:37am |
I'm editing my first reply. I didn't watch the utube or click on the other link. I just did what annoys me. I made a judgement by listening to someone else's opinion or only one side of the story. Not the article, but the people in the article. (by the way it was well written). Did she really compare the two? Together like they are almost one??!again, yikes |
| justjulie | | posted 31-Aug-2008 8:49am |
no |
| jettles | | posted 31-Aug-2008 5:38pm |
whatever! |
southernyankee  | | posted 1-Sep-2008 12:54am |
Not really. Comparing McCain to Hitler is not going too far one bit. These days its pretty standard comparing a person whom you disagree with / dislike to Hitler. I don't get it. Where's the contraversy? |
| Enheduanna |
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| ihatespiders |
I just plain dont like her. Nothing she says or does surprises me. If you look into her eyes you see a dead soul. |
| kcthedog | | posted 1-Sep-2008 10:21pm |
I abstain, to much trouble and not interested. |
| Matty |
Madonna is just an old whore searching for relevance |
| they |
nah.
Why shouldn't Madonna be allowed to say what she wants? |
| JohnCD |
I don't pay any attention to what Madonna (or any other celebrities) think or say. |
| HMC35 |
Oh, the McCain thing at her concert was just stupid. I'm confused by why she did it, except for a bit of publicity.
Besides that, why should I care what she thinks?
If she was going to bash the dude, she could've done something funny. What a waste of McCain-parody time. |
| thecomic22 |
I could care less what that old bag does. |
| Iseult |
I generally dislike options... I'd rather just let people tell their opinion. That's what I like to do, just read what people have to say. |
| cloudhugger |
> 
Is that your submission for her "Sex" book? |
| Enheduanna |
 There should definitely be an emoticon for blow-job. |
| cloudhugger |
Maybe same thing but with the eyes open. Or freakier yet, winking. |
| Enheduanna |
Or a combination of the eyes and the mouth. |
| cloudhugger |
|
| icurok | | posted 6-Sep-2008 11:59am |
Funny, I don't remember the McCain campaign kicking up a fuss about that cover of the New Yorker. |
| docgbrown | | posted 7-Sep-2008 10:21pm |
How ill-informed and offensive. Everyone should know McCain's best friend is Lieberman (who is Jewish). Senator Lieberman has torpedoed his own career as a Democrat to help McCain during this election season. Hitler was no friend to any Jewish people at any time of his life, let alone nearer his end. McCain is an idealist and patriot and not a dictator, murderer and tyrant. Hell, he (McCain) isn’t even in charge of anything yet, and might not ever be. |
| judgescratch | | posted 12-Sep-2008 11:21am |
The controversy that she tries to cook up is always so contrived, artificial, cosmetic, bull crap. She's not worth nearly what she makes. |
