(Image Source: Rolling Stone)
BY TRACY PFEIFFER
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Sixteen-year-old pop sensation Justin Bieber has accomplished plenty in his young life -- racking up Grammy nods, a multi-platinum album, and a horde of devoted fangirls -- (Video: Splash News)
-- but in a controversial new interview with Rolling Stone, the swoopy-haired Canadian might have finally found something he’s not good at -- politics.
A Rolling Stone reporter asked Bieber about hot-button topics like premarital sex, political parties, drugs, and abortion -- and it’s that last one that’s caused a stir.
On the subject of abortion, the Biebs was originally quoted as saying, “I really don’t believe in abortion.” When pressed on cases of rape, he answered, “Um. Well, I think that’s really sad, but everything happens for a reason. I guess I haven’t been in that position, so I wouldn’t be able to judge that.”
The response sparked outrage in the media -- taking aim at the “everything happens for a reason” line.
A headline from the Boston Herald reads, “BREAKING: Justin Bieber Sounds like an Idiot.”
And from the Portland Mercury: “Bieber is Like, Against Abortion, or You Know, Like, I Don't Know.”
While Canada’s Macleans’ headline is: “Justin Bieber says you got raped for a reason, ladies.”
But Rolling Stone was quick to amend the response -- saying Bieber had been misquoted and providing a link to the print version, which adds the sentence...
“I don’t know how that would be a reason.”
But the damage was done, and in the end it seems analysts weren’t as mad about Bieber’s politics -- as they were about Rolling Stone’s questions. A writer for RTE TEN points out -- isn’t Rolling Stone a music magazine?
“The Canadian … was reared as a Christian so his comments should come as no surprise to anyone. Except maybe Rolling Stone readers who might have expected something more rock and roll...”
And a writer for Care2 says... “....he was clearly uncomfortable talking about abortion, and it's just as unfair to ask a 15-year-old what he thinks about these issues without considering how sensitive they are. ...Rolling Stone shouldn't use these hot-button issues … to sell magazines.”
For the record -- the Biebs is sixteen. But the age factor doesn’t count for much for The View’s Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who says the popstar’s opinion shouldn’t be completely written off.
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: “We have brilliant minds who are young, inventors who are young, kids who are, actually -- now created Twitter, Facebook -- young minds who have created things that are now changing the world. To discount his opinion simply because he’s sixteen, I think, is a disservice -- and I’m a Bieber fan.”
BARBARA WALTERS: “You don’t have to discount it, but you can look at it as something that is coming out of a young mind that is still growing.”
And a guest on HLN’s Showbiz Tonight thinks the subject is more important to Bieber and his peers than critics believe.
“What sixteen-year-old is not talking about sex, is not talking about abortion? His fan base -- they’re talking about this stuff. ... The most shocking part of this entire Rolling Stone article has to be the cover and his hair being spiky. That’s crazy!”
If you’re wondering about the other things the Biebs talked about -- he says he supports universal health care, believes in waiting for sex until you’re in love, and doesn’t affiliate with any political party, but quote- “...whatever they have in Korea, that's bad.”
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