Since 1981, MTV has refused to allow political advertisements on its airwaves. Rather than accept cash from our nation’s most diseased industry, the network embarked on its own “Choose or Lose” campaign, a glorified get out the vote effort encouraging viewers to register and cast their ballots like a good American should. But all that is changing, effective immediately.

The Viacom network will begin cashing politically-tainted cheques, but only those written by candidates themselves or their parties, not the 527 groups that produce the slickest, and most offensive, attack ads YouTube has ever seen. (Previously, the more interesting MTV properties VH1, Comedy Channel, and Spike TV all took political dollars.)

So what does the about face mean for Election ‘08?

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