Tag Archives: putting-the-lie

The media weighs in on what ‘Innocent’ and ‘Runaway’ are saying about last year’s incident. By Paul Cantor Taylor Swift and Kanye West at the 2010 Video Music Awards Photo: Kevin Winter/ Kevin Mazur/ Getty Images/ WireImage Oscar Wilde once wrote, “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.” Taylor Swift definitely got that memo. At the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, she seemed to be forgiving someone, maybe Kanye West , as she crooned, “Who you are is not what you did. … You’re still an innocent.” Kanye, who apologized to Swift via Twitter earlier this month, seemed to be acknowledging his wrongdoing in the lyrics of his new song, “Runaway.” Though the pair didn’t appear onstage together on Sunday night, as some hoped, many in the media took the opportunity to weigh in on whether the evening’s performances had settled the score between them. “She seems to have forgiven him,” Jennifer Armstrong wrote in Entertainment Weekly. “She looked gorgeous, as she is wont to do, but, um, the actual song was a pretty opaque.” Kanye’s performance was looked upon more favorably. “It was a complete victory,” EW ‘s Brad Wete wrote, “addressing his character flaws and acknowledging public opinion without relinquishing any of his power.” Spin ‘s Steve Kandell thinks the two stars reluctantly met somewhere in the middle. “Kanye implored a toast to the douche bags and jerkoffs, among whom he undoubtedly counts himself, albeit with reservations,” he wrote. “She thinks he isn’t what he did, but he’s putting the lie to that — no, I am that, it’s just a shame you got in the crossfire. But, to paraphrase another great poet of the VMA era, he’s not that innocent.” Over at The New York Times, Jon Caramanica wrote of West, “Wearing a red suit, he looked amateurish and vulnerable, and also affecting. At the end, Mr. West’s knowing, bombastic humility won.” With respect to Taylor Swift, Caramanica continued, “Ms. Swift — a victim, but no na