I saw some of the Live8 concerts yesterday on VH1 & MTV. The performances were a mixed bag but the TV coverage was abysmal. First off, while there were multiple concerts going off simultaneously in different cities, MTV and VH1 just showed the same feed. It could have been a good opportunity to cover the event better (like MTV covering the Philladelphia concert and letting VH1 doing London).

Worst of all was the direction: the coverage would break away in the middle of songs, have moronic hosts chatting about what act was on stage behind them instead of showing the performance, and endless commercials (but it's not about the money, we were constantly reminded). The most anticipated act on the bill was the reunified Pink Floyd, but they cut away during the solo in "Comfortably Numb." Stevie Wonder got no respect -- they cut away in the middle of one of his live songs to replay a bit of the Destiny's Child performance from hours earlier in the day!

It was so systematically bad that I can only speculate that they purposely sabotaged the broadcast so that people taping and using Tivo would have a bad recording -- so they can sell a DVD of the event at some later date. But it's not about the money.

OK, now here's the big question -- can the Live8 concerts have any real effect on the G8 conference, like Bob Geldof is hoping? Did George Bush channel-surf, stop on MTV and see the concert and say to himself, "Holy shit, Pink Floyd is back together -- we better forgive all that African debt!"