Little had been heard about last year’s American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert until the American Music Awards. During his performance at the awards show, Lambert was mock fellated by one of his backup singers, pushed a guy’s face into his crotch and made out with his keyboard player. In response to the inappropriate behaviors, ABC elected to edit the scenes containing this and prevent future performances of his on the network. Despite this, Lambert will perform on The View with the understanding not to pull these shenanigans again.

            Looking upon his performance, Lambert had no regret for the adult content. Lambert said about his performance of For Your Entertainment on the subject of ABC censoring the performance, “You know honestly, if I offended some people … it’s apples and oranges. I’m not an artist that does things for every single person.” And why should he worry about offending people?

            Maybe, “offended” is a strong word to use in this situation. I, personally, was not “offended,” but I did find the content just too crude for ABC. It was not the clean content that the channel is expected to provide for its audience. It is a likely scenario that little kids were viewing this performance with their parents. Who wants to explain wants going on to their child? Some might say shouldn’t the children be asleep, but I remember being in the fourth grade and having friends that stayed up until midnight or later. This may not be the image many have come to accept for parenting young children; nevertheless, it happens. If the audience desires to gaze at this vulgar entertainment, they go to his content, not watch the AMA awards.

            Lambert attempted to rationalize his performance with the classic “she did it first.” The “she” in this case are performers, such as Lady Gaga or Britney Spears. Lambert did have a point when he said that females have been doing what he did for years with acceptance from the public eye, despite the inappropriate nature of these gimmicks. On the other hand, if everyone jumped off a bridge, would you do it?

            Lambert would, so ABC cannot trust his judgment. This fact only makes the blacklisting of his future performances logical. Out of the forgiveness in their hearts, ABC permitted him to be on a more adult show, The View.

            Ultimately, the issue of the censoring Lambert is not an issue of him being homosexual but of the audience tuning into the awards. Everyone, including little kids, watched the awards show. For this reason, it is only reasonable for the channel to edit his performance and prevent future performances.