Ahhh, Monday-morning quarterbacking. Rumors abound on the Internet today that perhaps MTV intentionally staged the Kanye rant for the publicity. (Note: I don’t think that’s true at all. In case you didn’t hear, I think Kanye’s an obnoxious alcoholic piece of shit who needs to think good and hard before he next decides to get wasted at a live televised event.)

But then it gets even weirder. RealNetworks — the company I work for, and which handles most of the advertising on this site — has a music product called Rhapsody (which FINALLY runs on the iPhone now, woot woot!). Rhapsody had purchased ad space at the VMAs long ago, to run immediately after Taylor Swift’s performance of “You Belong to Me.” The ad has a voice-over that says “This moment belongs to Taylor Swift.” In light of the voice-over and the Kanye West incident prior, there have been rumors circulating that Rhapsody was somehow involved in MTV’s “staging” of the Kanye West rant.

Apparently news of my love for Taylor Swift is so widespread at that company that a rep for the PR and marketing team actually stopped me in the hall today to let me know that the company had NOTHING to do with any rumored “staging” of the Kanye rant. I thought that was pretty funny. They were worried I’d hear the rumors and be pissed. The company also took to the RealNetworks blog today to deny any involvement: Let’s go ahead and put this rumor to rest. IF the “Kanye Incident” is part of a larger PR stunt by our friends at MTV, it’s news to us.

And I believe them, because if RealNetworks did have anything to do with my beloved Taylor Swift’s shining moment being ruined, I’m sure my badge wouldn’t have worked this morning. There’s NO WAY they would have let me in the building knowing how pissed I would have been.

The commercial in question is above.