Telethon Takes Subdued Route

A crowded two days of televised fundraising for Hurricane Katrina relief concluded Saturday with a surprisingly low-key, four-hour-plus telethon by MTV and its sister cable music channels VH1 and CMT.

In contrast to MTV’s often-flashy, irreverent image, “ReAct Now: Music & Relief” proceeded in a generally muted manner as performers such as Neil Young, Alicia Keys, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Alan Jackson played in front of small, subdued audiences on stages in New York, Los Angeles and Nashville.

The Rolling Stones, U2, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Coldplay and others appeared in clips filmed at recent concerts and other settings. Two singers, Melissa Etheridge and Chris Thomas King, performed songs they wrote in response to the disaster.

Nearly all the performances were offered with little comment on the government’s response to the flood victims. Rapper Kanye West, whose criticism of President Bush and the media during NBC’s telethon Sept. 2 sparked widespread controversy, performed an apolitical song Saturday, the inspirational “Touch the Sky,” and made no remarks.

But Pearl Jam’s singer Eddie Vedder, long a critic of the Bush administration, prefaced the band’s taped performance by saying, “Personally we feel that our government should be the ones that are able to take care of the situation. But sometimes you find that it’s the people of our own nation that have to rise and take care of one another.”

Comedian Chris Rock challenged millionaires who have benefited from tax cuts to donate some money to the cause, and a brief segment near the end featured taped commentary of actors and singers discussing the situation in the Gulf Coast.

In one commentary, actor Samuel L. Jackson expressed anger: “Nobody’s being big enough right now to say, ‘We screwed up.’ ” Rapper Xzibit criticized the government’s response to the flood victims: “It was slow, lethargic, pathetic.” Country singer Trent Willman said it was time to stop pointing fingers: “This is a natural disaster. It’s nobody’s fault. Let’s quit blaming people and start doing something about it.”

The MTV program followed two telethons Friday, one on the BET cable network and one that was aired on the six broadcast networks. One more major telethon, scheduled Saturday on PBS, will feature Wynton Marsalis, Bette Midler, Paul Simon and others.