The day after Sunday, August 25, all news programs seemed to explode with coverage of the previous night’s events. What was the event that had everyone going so crazy? The event was not some country crisis, nor did it have anything to do with Syria, strikers or Obamacare, but the VMA’s was the news of the week. Everyone who had a television was being subjected to watching Miley Cyrus grind all of the VMA stage and Robin Thicke’s junk. Over and over again people watched as Cyrus bounced about the stage in her flesh-toned top and panties, sticking her tongue out and grabbing Thicke’s “package.” We also watched as she proceeded to put her booty on Thicke, bend over and attempt a dance move called “twerking.”

Whether or not this display from the former Disney star and daughter of Billy Ray was distasteful and raunchy is not the problem we see here. The problem comes when this display is played over and over again on what are thought to be respectable news programs. The problem comes when we give more attention to what a 20-year-old pop star is choosing to do in her life rather than paying more attention to actual news. The display that Cyrus put on was shocking and that made it news. However, did we really have to watch it more than once? Did her raunchy and what some people are calling “ratchet” performance have enough news value to continue covering throughout the following week?

When it comes to things like this, we have to be cautious on how much we cover it. Once Cyrus’ performance comes before other news stories that have more value, we have crossed the line from news to plain entertainment. There is no harm in popping in on the program to say, “Hey, if you missed it last night, here’s what Miley Cyrus did on the VMA’s.” However, after that mention, it’s time to move on. Are we really more concerned with what the former Hannah Montana is doing at the VMA’s now that she’s getting older and trying to find her identity than what is going on outside of MTV? If so, then we fear for our nation and our news organizations. As shocking as this performance may have been, there were more important things going on in the country and those issues should have been addressed first, before going on a weeklong “look-what-Miley-Cyrus-did” binge.