Live 8’s safety Net

Everyone knows MTV long ago lost interest in pop music, so why doesn’t the cable channel just admit it and leave the coverage of historic events, such as the humanitarian Live 8 concerts, to someone with respect for the music and its audience?

MTV’s coverage of Saturday’s event, designed to combat poverty in Africa, was beyond embarrassing. It was pitiful.

I was warned long ago to avoid overkill as a critic, but bear with me this time. Add “pathetic” to the list.

Watching it with others in the newsroom led to howls of disbelief as the channel kept cutting away from key performances, including the much-awaited reunion of Pink Floyd, for mindless chatter from the MTV hosts about, golly-gee, how exciting it was to have these acts onstage.

Was Kurt Loder, a rare MTV voice with an understanding of rock history, on vacation?

“This was an important concert, an important cause, and God knows how many millions of viewers turned it off early out of frustration,” Steve Smith of Temple City wrote in an e-mail to The Times.

Jason McCartney of Santa Barbara complained in an e-mail about excessive commercials and cutting away from memorable songs: “Showing only a portion of Bono’s introduction to ‘One’ and then cutting away to a commercial and not even showing the song itself.”

The first of MTV’s many misjudgments was basing its coverage in Philadelphia, one of the 10 Live 8 locales, rather than in London, the musical and spiritual heart of the day.

A second error was showing the same programming on MTV and sister channel VH1.

If the MTV brain trust had understood the significance of the day, one channel would have broadcast the London show in its entirety live, starting at 6 a.m. Pacific time.

It could have then shown the entire Philadelphia show live on the other outlet and, ideally, run highlights from the other cities on MTV2 or in later broadcasts on MTV or VH1.

My plan may not have been perfect, but it took only 15 seconds to think of it.

So you know the MTV powers must have had other priorities in mind if they didn’t come up with something similar.

Was doing it right too expensive for a company that has made billions off rock ‘n’ roll over the years?

Or did it just not care?

MTV’s communication breakdown couldn’t have come at a worse time for the channel’s credibility, because it probably encouraged hundreds of thousands of rock fans to go to the Internet, where America Online did a spectacular job of presenting the Live 8 music.

The Internet service provider’s offer to show the music free to anyone wasn’t without its problems.

Because of hookup difficulties, I missed the opening moments of the London concert, where Paul McCartney teamed with U2 on the Beatles’ joyful “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and Coldplay joined with singer Richard Ashcroft for a rendition of the Verve’s haunting “Bitter Sweet Symphony.”

After trying five computers, I located one that accepted the AOL live feed. From then on, the day was a treat. You really felt part of a global rock experience.

Not only could you watch the London show in its entirety, mercifully free of the gushing and self-promotion of the MTV hosts, but advisories on the screen also alerted you to what was happening simultaneously onstage in Live 8 concerts in Berlin, Rome, Toronto, Philadelphia and Paris.

At one point early in the day, for instance, you could read that Shakira was coming up in Paris, while Annie Lennox was on in London and Bon Jovi was taking the stage in Philadelphia.

Unfortunately, I didn’t realize for nearly an hour that those alerts stay on the screen until you “refresh” the directory. I don’t know how much good music I missed by not even checking in on Philadelphia because I didn’t want to see Bon Jovi.

Once I noticed the refresh button, the day was a series of frequently exciting choices.

Did you click on London to watch R.E.M. playing “Man on the Moon” or on Berlin to see Green Day salute the majesty of the Live 8 cause with its version of Queen’s “We Are the Champions”?

Later, Sting in London went up against Roxy Music in Berlin.

Fortunately, AOL is already replaying all the concerts and plans to let you call up any performance on demand.

And how were the performances? Mixed, as you’d expect when we’re talking about more than 150 acts.

Even on the London show, I’d have preferred fewer acts so that the better ones could have had more time onstage. Forget Dido, Keane, Joss Stone, Velvet Revolver, Robbie Williams. Give more time to U2, Coldplay, R.E.M., the Who, Paul McCartney and Pink Floyd.

But at least Live 8 driving force Bob Geldof had a good excuse for putting as many bestsellers on stage as possible: the campaign to rescue Africa. He wants to show he’s got public opinion on his side when the issue is considered this week by government leaders at the G8 summit in Scotland.

What’s MTV’s excuse for its sorry coverage?

It’s a good thing it’s a holiday today. MTV execs have time to think of answers before they start looking at their e-mails Tuesday.

Hilburn, pop music critic for The Times, can be reached at Robert.hilburn@latimes.com

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Rockin’ all over the world

Here, there, everywhere: Fiery performances delight at least 600,000 in Philadelphia. Also, dispatches from four other cities. Page 16