Grim, are you playing contrarian or do you honestly believe that? It is a nice effort to try to salvage Jon's weak and poorly-reasoned post. I'm sure you (and I) believe that blurring the line between commerce and programming is a bad thing but I don't think that line has ever existed with MTV.

Ever since they and the Buggles killed the radio star, the station has been about selling products whether it be the music from major labels or bottles of shampoo. For better or worse, the programming managers decided that they could sell more beer or cars if they switched their programming from music videos to reality shows (Real World, Road Rules, etc...). The moment MTV stops selling pairs of shoes or tubes of lipstick is the moment that they stop broadcasting.

Now, I understand the argument that this is even more overt commercialization (which is what I think you're arguing against) but I still think this is a (big) net plus because people are going to buy (slightly) more pretzels and many more Throw Me the Statue CDs.