The Times Online of London headlines its coverage of last night’s MTV Video Music Awards:

“Anti-war band win MTV awards.”

The British reporter tries really, really hard to turn the show into an Important Cultural Turning Point in America’s War on Terror:

GREEN DAY, the anti-war punk rockers, swept the MTV Video Music Awards in a sign that American popular culture is turning against US presence in Iraq.

The Californian band won seven awards for their anti-war album American Idiot and the single The Boulevard of Broken Dreams, including Best Rock Video, Best Group Video, Video of the Year and the Viewer’s Choice Award.

Accepting the awards at the ceremony in Miami on Sunday night, the band members noted that they had been playing together for 16 years before the success of their latest album. “I think it struck a note right now,” bassist Mike Dirnt said. “Here’s to our soldiers. Let’s bring them home safe.”

The group has attracted much comment because their video, Wake Me Up When September Ends, about a soldier separated from his loved one by the war, is the most requested song on the music channel.

Dummocrats.com notes a few problems with the story:

One, I had no idea that you could use the VMAs were such a powerful sign of which way the pop cultural winds are going to blow. If that’s the case, I better start wearing a bra & panties or a swimsuit to work. What am I thinking?

Two, turning against? Since when were spoiled pop stars for the war in Iraq?

Truth be told, I watched all of the VMAs and even Green Day barely mentioned the War in Iraq and not a single other presenter or winner said anything political. As much as the UK press wants to spin this as some anti-war, anti-Bush fest, it wasn’t. The VMAs were all about T&A. That’s it.

Yup. T&A. Plus a sprinkling of gangsta thuggery and the bizarre antics of beleaguered rap star R. Kelly. The New York Times describes his performance:

[N]o one could compete with R. Kelly, who stole the show without singing a note. He used his performance slot to unveil Part 6 of his “Trapped in the Closet” saga. Lip-synching (and pantomiming furiously), he re-enacted a furious encounter between Kathy, her husband Rufus, and his boyfriend Chuck. Mr. Kelly almost lost his composure when he had to mime gay sex, then regained it in time for some dizzying dialogue: “Then Kathy says, ‘Rufus!’/Rufus says, ‘Kathy!’//Chuck says, ‘Rufus!’/Rufus says, ‘Chuck!’/Then Kathy grabs Rufus.”

Oooo-kay.

Like I said: Not anti-war. Just freaky.