Politicians shouldn't waste time reviewing TV

MTV's latest unreal reality show, "Jersey Shore," hasn't done anything to sully the image of New Jersey.

The reaction of some New Jersey politicians, on the other hand, is giving the Garden State a black eye.

To be clear, this is in no way meant as a defense of the ridiculous, reprehensible "Jersey Shore." If it's possible to rip yourself off, MTV has ripped off "The Real World" — it's just a more mean-spirited, more violent, less intelligent version of that long-running staple on the cable network.

It's 20-something idiots acting like morons. And, yes, it's an unflattering stereotype of Italian-Americans and New Jersey residents — even though not all of the cast members are of Italian ancestry, and only one is actually from New Jersey.

I'm not a rocket scientist or anything, but I am smart enough to realize that "Jersey Shore" is a TV show. A dumb TV show. A dumb MTV show.

I would be an idiot if I took it particularly seriously.

And yet a number of New Jersey politicians are doing just that. And, in the process, making themselves look … well, not so smart.

New Jersey State Sen. Joseph F. Vitale, who's the chairman of the New Jersey Italian American Legislative Caucus, and Richard Bilotti, the chairman of the New Jersey Italian and Italian American Heritage Commission, sent a letter to MTV's parent company demanding that "Jersey Shore" be canceled immediately.

"Jersey Shore is a fabrication created by MTV Networks and marketed to represent reality," read the letter. "This is a far cry from a documentary of a naturally occurring subculture existing in New Jersey."

I don't mean to be too flippant about this, but, um, duh!

The Newark Star-Ledger reported that Vitale and Billotti "even go so far as to say the show violates, at least in spirit, New Jersey's hate and bias crime laws."

"The bias-related acts displayed by employees of MTV Networks in the production and marketing of 'Jersey Shore,' by their nature, are confrontational, inflame tensions and promote social hostility," they write. "These acts are contrary to the spirit of New Jersey law and jeopardize the active and open pursuit of freedom and opportunity."

Oh. My. Gosh.