Snooki Jersey ShoreRadarOnline.com is reporting that Snooki was hospitalized for alcohol poisoning back in May while they were taping the current season Jersey Shore. Are you shocked? I'm not shocked. Not in the slightest. That young woman drinks, as they say in France, "like a hole."

What is shocking is that MTV chose not to air the incident in last Thursday's episode. They show the gang's night out in a South Beach nightclub, but it ends with Snooki passing out in Vinny's bed at home. In other words, MTV covered up a reality that many binge-drinking teens (or about to be binge-drinking teens) might have benefited from seeing.

Nope, drinking like a hole isn't all fun and games and bar fights, and MTV has a responsibility to its viewers and to its booze-guzzling starlet to show the ugliness and talk about it.

I survived alcohol poisoning when I was young, so I know what's it's like to want to overdo it on the boozing. I remember thinking it was really important to show people just how far I could go, how much and how fast I could down the hard alcohol. Somehow I thought that made me seem all-powerful and gutsy, wild and free. Probably much deeper than that, I thought it would make people like me more. Binge drinking landed me in the hospital that night and a lot of other dark places in the years that came after before I ultimately gave up drinking.

So what happens to a young woman like Snooki who's got a similar "drinking for attention" (or love) problem but who is also being paid in fame and cold hard cash to binge drink and act insane? What happens when your self-worth as well as your actual financial worth is calculated on your proclivity for slurred speech, black outs, getting hit in the face by guys in bars, and cursing out cops?

(As an ex-drinker, I have to say the idea of this time in one's life being caught on film and aired to the world is a total nightmare.)

And then, more importantly in the case of MTV's cover-up of the overdose, what happens when the hand that feeds you covers it all up and doesn't even want to talk about the harm that's being done? Isn't that what Lindsay Lohan's "people" did for her? As we can see, the years of sweeping her drug addiction under the rug didn't help her in the least. Shouldn't your employer want you be well? Shouldn't your employer send you off to rehab after you end up in the hospital near death while doing a job for them? But then there's the problem of Snooki's drunken drama being the very thing that funds the show.

One source, who was on-set at the time, admitted to RadarOnline.com, "She was so drunk that she had to be carried out of the nightclub 'Dream' by the show's producers."

Earlier this month, Snooki was fined $500 and given community service for a drunk and disorderly on the beach, in which she cussed out some cops. Snooki blamed a tequila binge.

"It was a good wakeup call for me," Snooki said at an MTV press event.

"It definitely embarrassed my family and that's just not good... My dad was very, very p**sed. He's like, 'I didn't raise you like this.'

"Now when I go out, I only have a couple drinks. I learned that I need to calm down with drinking.

She added: "It's just a drunken mistake. Obviously I like to party. I like to have a good time but maybe I'm overdoing it a little too much. So right now I'm just watching myself and I can have a good time not drinking."

Of course, now we know that this incident and that statement also followed the life-threatening trip to the hospital.

So how many lessons is Snooki going to have to learn? How many drunken mistakes does she need to make? Only time will tell. She must do what she must do.

What remains to be seen, though, is whether or not MTV will take their share of the blame if something really awful goes down for Snooki (god forbid) while they just stand by making really good reality TV.

What do you think about MTV covering up Snooki's alcohol overdose? Is this in any way helpful to Snooki or the teens who are watching Jersey Shore?

 

Image via MTVJ