Lots of annoying things have forced themselves onto my radar.  Michael Bolton, Yanni, Kenny G, and Cher for example.  Knowledge of the existence of Sylvester Stallone (he of the third testicle) is lodged in my brain, and I know of the oeuvre of Pauly Shore.  I am also aware of lesser mediocrities like Adam Sandler, Mandy Patinkin, and the perpetually-overrated Garth Brooks.  I have been dragged,  kicking and screaming, to a Stevie Nicks concert, and I lived.

On the other hand, I’ve expended lots of effort to avoid knowing who Hannah Montana is - until the Vanity Fair kerfuffle, I didn’t know the name Miley Cyrus.  I had never heard her speak nor had I heard her sing. I was blissfully unaware that Hannah was the spawn of the bathetically awful Billy Ray Cyrus.  If pressed, I could not have picked her out of a lineup.

But no more.

Coverage of this proto-slut is everywhere - it cannot be avoided.  Even worse - the Miley march-to-the-sea has displaced real news:

[Monday] night, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams allotted eighty seconds to yesterday’s momentous Supreme Court ruling that there’s nothing unconstitutional with Indiana’s law requiring a photo ID to vote. Meanwhile, during the same broadcast, it spent over two minutes on the concern caused by photos of teen star Miley Cyrus in Vanity Fair.

Who cares that the Supreme Court said who cares if people likely to vote for Democrats get disenfranchised:

Never mind how the Supreme Court’s decision will directly affect the Indiana Democratic primary, the presidential election in November, and, potentially, voting rights of US citizens for years to come. NBC Nightly News and Brian Williams provided their viewers with a much more valuable piece of information: the “ruckus” over teen sensation Miley Cyrus’ photo spread in Vanity Fair and an answer to the question that’s keeping most Americans awake at night:

Disney and Miley have been heard whining that Vanity Fair “manipulated” this Lindsay Lohan wannabe, but the truth is that the only manipulating taking place will be when little Miley turns over Vanity Fair’s check and signs it on the back. Yet another sign that our civilization is in rapid decline.  These people must be stopped.

Miley Cyrus Trumps Voter ID Ruling on NBC Nightly News; On Same Day, NBC Anchor Slammed NYT’s Fluff [Media Bloodhound]