This morning, a stoic Rihanna sat down with Diane Sawyer for the first part of an interview about what went down between her and her abusive former boyfriend Chris Brown. (Choice quotes: “I fell in love with that person, and it’s embarrassing that’s the type of person that I fell in love with” and “Don’t react off of love. F#*@ love.”) The interview wraps up tomorrow night at 10pm with Rihanna going into details about the pair’s pre-Grammy altercation. Four hours earlier, MTV will broadcast an interview with the beanie-wearing, “100% comfortable wit my sexuality” Brown, also about the abuse. In the clip circulating, the singer seems to say the right things (“What was I thinking? ... How do you, Chris go from point A to Point B, turn it to a positive, become the person that you want to be.”), but I still want to know: What is MTV doing in his corner?

Brown is, in his way, newsworthy. And his remorse and regret and apologies may be genuine -- but so is his hustle. Brown has an absurd-looking album, Graffiti, coming out on Tuesday. In other words, his timing is suspect and his motives impure. And if he’s just doing what he has to do not to be remembered forever as the guy who beat up Rihanna (or sang the song that people like to dance to at weddings), MTV has no such excuse. Brown may get them some ratings, but they’re doing him the bigger favor: not just helping him push records, but, by virtue of taking him seriously and sympathetically, resurrecting his rep. ABC is doing its part to help Rihanna sell albums too (her newest, Rated R, is out at the end of the month), but they’re still on the side of good in this particular media frenzy. It’s not that Brown deserves to be blackballed, but does he really deserve another special where he gets to excuse himself? Seriously, MTV, no one should be wearing the Team Brown t-shirt.