Why would MTV shut down its news website and delete all the content? This is a journalistic disaster.

MTV hasn’t been about music for years, opting instead to become a hellhole of cheap reality programming. But before it all went downhill, it was the source of so much music news, interviews, journalism, politics, and music-related features. Kurt Loder, Tabitha Soren, John Norris, and others made sure viewers were up to date on what was happening in the world of music. And even though MTV had abandoned any kind of music news journalism, MTV News was still available online with nearly 20 years’ worth of information.

Now it’s suddenly all gone. MTVNews.com has been shut down and decades of pop culture history and research material has apparently been deleted. That includes a vast trove of important archival hip-hop history.

This has been a slow death. Most of the editorial staff was laid off in 2017 as all the reality crap crept in. And in 2023, owner Paramount shut down MTV News entirely. This week, all that material gathered since the late 80s–37 years’ worth–has disappeared. All that recorded history about music and entertainment, gone.

And in case you missed it, Paramount also pulled down all its CMT material last week, removing decades of country music journalism.

What the f*ck? Seriously, what the f*cking f*ck? Couldn’t Paramount bother to monetize this? No one wanted to license this content? It couldn’t be repurposed?

Paramount: You’re idiots.

UPDATE: Reader Olie says that they may in fact be archived here–but we don’t know.