The other day we saw how USA Today, in keeping with its charter as a very very serious national newspaper of national import, offered readers not-one-not-two-but-three hard-hitting stories on the prevous evening’s edition of “American Idol.”

We’re using “hard-hitting” in the USA Today sense, meaning “largely promotional, fluffy, and unquestioning.”

Today, the NYT takes a look at “Idol,” and quickly reveals that virtually everything on the show is scripted, right down to guys in the front making sure the sweet young things the show recruits to fill up the space in front of the stage* sway their arms in the air the right way during power ballads.

The sweet young things, incidentally, are bussed in from sororities.

Also, parts of the show billed as live aren’t, like a lot of the celebrity guest performances.

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* The Times, with an apparent straight face, calls this the “mosh pit.”