Chris Brown withdraws from Kids Choice Awards: Is it a victory?

There's been no shortage of outrage when it comes to Rihanna's beating at the hands of boyfriend Chris Brown, or about Nickelodeon's failure to withdrawn Brown from consideration in the Kids Choice Awards. But now the problem has been solved, because Brown has withdrawn his name from the ballot as of this afternoon.

But is the problem solved?

Let's recap: Rihanna and Brown had an argument, which ended with Rihanna landing in the hospital, beaten beyond recognition. We begged Rihanna to leave him, we begged the media to help, and we shared our personal stories in an effort to show Nickelodeon exactly what their support of Chris Brown was telling America. There was even an online petition circulated to urge Nickelodeon to take action. As of yesterday, Nickelodeon continued to back Brown. And today, Brown has voluntarily removed himself from award contention.

I'll ask you again: Is the problem here now solved?

Toya's World is willing to give a nod to Brown:

I think he did the right thing. It shows responsibility and caution on his behalf. I know this caused up a storm among many parents, and I am particularly shocked that Nickelodeon adamantly chose to stick by him especially when everybody else went out of their way to distance themselves.

Ifelicious goes beyond shock with Nickelodeon, right into disappointment:

I am disappointed in Nickelodeon, however. Not taking him off the ballot really sends a negative message to children that admitted criminal actions have no consequences.

DivaJulia of Dipped in Cream doesn't bother mincing words:

Can you hear it? It's the sound of Chris Brown's PR Team running at full-throttle. Seems Chris withdrew his name from Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards due to "the incident" and "issues". Is that what he calls beating the shit out of his girlfriend's face?

From where I sit, I'm having a hard time feeling like this is any sort of solution. I agree with DivaJulia that Brown's withdrawal is a PR move, plain and simple. There was too much negative attention being paid to his failure to bow out; it's hard for me to see this move as anything other than a PR-dictated, too-little, too-late Hail Mary maneuver.

More troubling to me is Nickelodeon's role -- or should I say, non-role -- in this. While it's all good and well that Brown is no longer part of the Kids Choice Awards, as a parent I find Nickelodeon's whole supposed "we're neutral" and "innocent until proven guilty" stance completely unacceptable. Nick is in the business of children's entertainment. They can hem and haw all they like about the reasons why they didn't feel they needed to take action, but the bottom line is that they should've either removed Brown or asked him to withdraw from the awards as soon as the story went public. I don't care what your spin is; the man has been charged with felony assault, and Nickelodeon is a network for children. I think their refusal to take a stance in this matter is going to haunt them.

So. Problem solved? Not yet. Not by a long shot.

BlogHer Contributing Editor Mir also blogs about issues parental and otherwise at Woulda Coulda Shoulda, and about the joys of mindful retail therapy at Want Not.