I'm sure you've been told that MTV is the work of Satan - a network solely devised to spoil the youth of America and carry out a swift and efficient apocalypse. I'm sure you've also been told that MTV provides unique social commentary for those willing to look deeper into its constantly changing lineup. Neither of these statements is completely false - well, maybe the satanic apocalypse thing is a bit of a stretch.

MTV transformed from a channel that played crappy, "inappropriate" music videos to a network that plays almost no music videos and instead airs "inappropriate" scripted reality shows. The moral of the story is that a lot of people find MTV to be inappropriate, and I can't totally disagree. Four-year-old kids probably shouldn't be watching MTV; that age is more BET appropriate.

Yet any open-minded person only needs to watch an episode of the hilarious/tragic/depressing mess that is "My Super Sweet 16" or "Laguna Beach" to see that MTV is a spotlight on certain flawed aspects of contemporary society. The majority of MTV reality shows have a relatively simple message: don't act like these assholes.

This was all something I was fine with. I realize most people watch "My Super Sweet 16" or "Laguna" for simply entertainment purposes, but the shows do expose some of the more troublesome aspects of our society, so it's not all bad. And I felt this way about basically all MTV programming until around a month and a half ago when I started watching MTV's "I'm From Rolling Stone," a show that gave six young journalists a chance to work for a summer at Rolling Stone magazine and vie for a yearlong contributing editor position there.

A few weeks into the show, it became clear that the contestants were filling certain TV-friendly roles. This came as no surprise to me - it's an MTV show. The initial application even required a short video of each applicant, something Rolling Stone's internship application doesn't require.

None of the finalists are truly worthy of the golden ticket they received. Russell repeatedly showed up late and ignored his work, Krishtine complained about not getting hip-hop stories, Krystal simply turned down stories. The contestants may have had their moments, but no one stood out from the rest. When Krishtine was declared the winner during the finale that premiered this past Sunday, it was more of a non-loss than a win.

While I wasn't surprised by how the show unfolded, I didn't realize why this was problematic until recently. The issue lies in the show's casting and how the show fits in with the rest of the MTV lineup, which attempts to expose unique groups of young people.

Although I realize that landing a spot on "I'm From Rolling Stone" isn't a complete reflection of one's journalistic abilities, most people probably don't. The contest's intent was to find hungry, talented journalistic talent. Assuming the show found the hungriest and most talented would be a reasonable assertion - except that it would be wrong.

Missing deadlines is hardly acceptable at a college newspaper, yet the people who were supposed to be the best Rolling Stone could find missed deadlines and turned in half-baked stories left and right. Almost anyone even considering a career in journalism would have busted their ass all summer at Rolling Stone if given the chance, yet these contestants approached many of their assignments with the focus of a stoned Blockbuster clerk. All Krishtine had to do to win was complete most of her assignments and write passable stories - something none of the other contestants were even capable of.

When "My Super Sweet 16" shows some kid bitching because her new BMW 3-Series isn't a convertible, it's easy to see that there's a lot of spoiled rich kids out there. The difference is no one is assuming these are the most impressive 16-year-olds on the planet.

But the contestants on "I'm From Rolling Stone" were supposed to be the best of the best. "American Idol" doesn't keep contestants on because they're good TV personalities. "Idol" exploits certain contestants during the first few weeks of the show and occasionally someone hangs on too long because they're hot (see: Antonella Barba), but they're never seriously considered. And that's pop music, now the lowest form of art in America. You're telling me MTV and Rolling Stone have lower standards than "American Idol"?

The show conveyed the idea that the nation's elite young journalists are only capable of doing the bare minimum. If that's assumed to be true, then everyone who got cut before them must have been incapable of properly completing their application.

Maybe I was wrong about MTV - it just might be the work of the devil after all.

- Passman never misses deadline. Ever. He can be reached at mpass@umich.edu.