So the discussion about what was in the lyrics, a necessary and valuable moral debate about a major cultural phenomenon, was extremely limited. The critics, not to mention most of the rest of the press, missed an opportunity. This was noticed. They're also lowering the bar to such depths that artists will soon have to crawl to get under it. I would extend that argument to movies and other cultural forces.
Critics are so afraid of being uncool that they are no help to that mother in the record store.
Eminem and his ilk have their First Amendment right to spew their poison. The critics have the right, and I would argue the duty, to sound the warning bell when they do. So do the rest of the media, the news departments that also missed the significance of the Eminem event. The economy is supposedly wonderful, but people are working hard and it is difficult, even if they do have time, for them to analyze all the cultural air that their families are breathing. Some people flat don't care.