Tonight, my thoughts are with Rihanna, who is scheduled to testify tomorrow morning at a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles against Chris Brown, charged with felony counts of assaulting her.  It must take immense bravery for Rihanna to testify in the face of not only the hurdles that any abused woman faces, but also intense scrutiny from tone-deaf media.  For example in the CNN Showbiz Tonight clip below, host AJ Hammer says:

I’d have to believe that she’d rather have this whole thing just kinda go away so she can get on with her life.

Really?  Are you saying, AJ, that you believe she should just “get over it?”  Pat LaLama then says:

They [the court] only care about the seriousness of the charge and whether he’s responsible, not whether she wants to blubber on the stand and talk about how she still loves him.

How sensitive.  It got worse.  Hammer read the LAPD statement:

[Rihanna] turned to face Brown and he punched her in the left eye with his right hand.  He then drove away in the vehicle and continued to punch her in the face with his right hand while steering the vehicle with his left hand. The assault caused [Rihanna's] mouth to fill with blood and blood to splatter all over her clothing and the interior of the vehicle.  Brown looked at [Rihanna] and stated, “I’m going to beat the s*** out of you when we get home!  You wait and see!”

The reaction of  Ben Widdicombe, Celebrity Editor of Stylist.com: 

That is such a hard statement to hear read, isn’t it, when you imagine what happened to Rihanna that night. 

Hard statement to hear?  Poor Ben Widdecombe, to have to hear it read.  How about what a horrific night it was for Rihanna to endure???  Widdecombe went on:

But it seems to me that both sides are playing hardball on this.  Rihanna’s own attorney has made it very clear for quite some time now that she will cooperate with prosecutors… Both sides seem to be wanting to gear up for a fight here.

Excuse me?  Is Widdecombe equating Rihanna’s cooperating with prosecutors to playing hardball and gearing up for a fight?  That’s outrageous.  Would anyone call it hardball if a criminal had tried to strangle a man and that man was cooperating with prosecutors?  No.  Widdecombe is not being quite as extreme as the radio personalities that have called Rihanna a snitch, but he’s following in that same track of casting the victim in a bad light merely for seeking justice.

Chris Brown is charged with “assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury.”  That’s a serious, felony crime.  America should be rallying around Rhianna as she does the courageous thing and seeks justice both for her sake and for the sakes of all of the teens who view these music stars as role models.

 

Meanwhile, what’s Chris Brown up to?  In the CNN tape, Hammer says,  ”Given how hard Chris Brown has been working to revamp his image, I can’t imagine that he would ever want that [LAPD statement] repeated…”  So what’s he been doing that should repair his image?  One bit of news is that an early version of his new song “Smash” has hit the internet.  Really Chris?  You’re going to rehabilitate your image with a song entitled, “Smash?”  Supposedly, the song is about a fan who desires him.  An excerpt of the lyrics and the YouTube follow. 

I’m a kind of guy don’t follow rules.
So come on baby girl, let’s break a few.
Well, let me say this:
Are you sure you want to play with fire?
I’m guaranteed to take it higher.
If you say you don’t then you’re a liar.

You don’t want my number baby; you don’t want my mind.
I know what you want; I know what you want.
You don’t want no picture baby, or no autograph.
I know what you want; I know what you want, you want to
Hit it, hit it, hit it, smash,
Hit it, hit it, hit it, smash,
Hit it, hit it, hit it, smash,
Hit it, hit it, hit it, smash.

I know her game; she all the same.
I don’t really really want to know her name.
She went down town like a stock exchange
All her friends kept c**k blocking me.

Keri Hilson, a songwriter that Hollywood Gossip reported is working with Chris, says

It is unfortunate what they are going through, but I feel like if you’ve ever had a fan base, you’re really only one song away from appeasing that base.

Unfortunate?  No.  The alleged crimes were no mere accidental misfortune.  And if the fan base is appeased by one hit, that’s a sad statement about the value of women’s safety in America.