Britney Spears? Didn't "Chinese Democracy" get released this past week?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have reserved the right to refocus the subject matter of this blog during NASCAR's off-season. Since Jimmie Johnson nailed down the title a few weeks back, I really haven't felt the need to address any of the issues facing NASCAR. The testing ban, teams merging/folding and the advent of Stewart-Haas Racing all have been diligently covered in traditional media and the blogosphere.  So I'm leaving the track for now to take a look at a matter of pop-culture that is puzzling me. Axl Rose releases Chinese Democracy, the most anticipated rock record of all-time, and Rolling Stone magazine's comeback cover story is...Britney Spears! 

Rolling Stone! The music magazine of record, puts TMZ Princess Britney Spears on the cover and not the real comeback story: Axl Rose and the 13 year Guns N' Roses odyssey. I've had my beef with Rolling Stone in the past: leaving Mike McCready off the list of the top 100 rock guitarists, giving Tool's masterpiece 10,000 Days 3-and-a-half stars (the same score they gave to Britney's new album Circus), and having Barack Obama featured on the cover 3 times in the last 9 months, but this is ridiculous. How much did Jive Records pay to have this story done? RS—I've questioned your integrity before, now I know you are all in bed with a marketing blowup doll.

I suggest Rolling Stone include themselves in their standing feature "With us/Against us" and place themselves as far to the right as possible. You are the bubblegum pushers. You've poisoned what's real and forgotten the proletariat that made you.