Again, this bugs me...

Yep, 'Stan' is on VH1 again. And everytime it comes it pisses me off. Sorry, that should be it ****** me ***.

The first moment it starts to go wrong is:
"I ain't mad. I just think it's ........ up you don't answer fans."

Fair enough, you might think. No swearing on this channel. Even at 11. Then it goes on.
"He always used to cheat on my mum and ........ her."

Beat her? Any good reason why they can't play that bit. Maybe because it's unpleasant, and they think it might disturb their viewers.

It goes on
"Sometimes I even ...... myself to see how much it .........."
Um, cut myself? Bleeds? Is self-harm now too unpleasant to make it into the mainstream media. God, no wonder it's the hidden epidemic. But that's really not the point.

Censorship is just another service the media provide for us, like news. Just as war footage somehow conveniently omits the charred corpses and dead British soldiers, VH1 has decided that it won't just take the swearing and sex from the song, they'll omit anything they think might be shocking.

Here's a newsflash- Stan is the story of an obsessive fan who kills himself and his girlfriend because his idol won't write back. Never mind individual lines- the whole song is disturbing. And that's the point. And if VH1 has decreed that its fans won't be exposed to disturbing imagery, well here's an idea, don't bother showing 'Stan', or anything else which is upsetting but makes a point about life which, lets face it, is often quite disturbing.

Why not just stick to something safe, leave the upsetting stuff for the grown ups, and show more music from Sting and Grease?

Dammit, they just have.