"I am anything but a prude…"
The Smoking Gun has done the invaluable public service of printing some of the reportedly 200,000 complaints to the FCC about the Superbowl's halftime show.
The treasure trove of vox populi includes one that begins: "i hope you do investigate the Jackson incident. i am anything but a prude I have owned a strip club and later an adult site but this isn't about 1st amendent rights this is just pure lack of respect for american families and decency."
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Ah, I love it when people bring up the “I am such and such, but…”, as if prefixing their BS statement with an admission of being on the side of their detractors will boost their credibility.
To which I call bullshit! I wouldn’t care if Tony Soprano didn’t want to see titties on TV, it still wouldn’t convince me any families are harmed.
If I owned a strip club or adult site, I might want the FCC to be vigorous in keeping the sight of breasts off of network TV. I’d rather that people only be able to see breasts by paying for services like strip clubs or adult sites.
Who says regulation is bad for business? 🙂
(Yes, I know, that one guy is hardly proof of a conspiracy by pornographers to sanitize the airwaves, but it is funny to hear some guy basically complaining to the government about his competitors.)
Actually if you read the entire email (assuming it was legit) the author specifically cited a concern about children being exposed to sexually explicit material. That’s a fair distinction IMNHO.
Let’s keep in mind, this wasn’t sexually explicit material… this was a boob. The majority of kids in the world spend the better part of their young lives staring one in the face several times a day.
How the image of a boob on television could possibly harm them any more than, say, the image of Kid Rock (whose performance preceeded the Janet strip show), is beyond me.
The boob was harmful because it was sagging and middle-aged. It would’ve been more prudent to show something perky and not impaled.
Anyone who begins any statement with the words, “I’m not a prude, but…” is a prude.
Why is it that the phrase “this is not a First Amendment issue” is never followed by an explanation of why it is not a First Amendment issue? Basically, it just means that the speaker is opposed to free speech in a particular area, but can’t admit it to himself.
The fact that this is still a topic just goes to show…
Americans needs so badly to have an emotional outlet to vent their feelings. Real events and issues of import are complicated and require thought. But non-issues surrounding non-events like the Superbowl halftime show can be whipped up as symbols of every ideological division roaming the cultural landscape of this country.
Now, I’m not an anti-American. In fact, I’ve even been known to eat a hotdog. But sometimes, I am ashamed to share a continent with these people.
Page 15 was pretty good
I’m just curious how many times otherwise intelligent people need to see and read the name of the world’s most-watched annual event to know that it’s spelled “Super Bowl,” not “Superbowl.”
It’s not a First Amendment issue.
I just wonder if anyone bothered to really listen to the introduction to this spectical. The part that asks:
“Oh say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave
Oer the land of the free and the home of the brave?”
I love the qualifier on page 4, which begins, “I don’t consider myself a finatic [SIC]…” and then proceeds to predict that we may be the next Sodom and Gomorrah. You can’t help but laugh at that one.
> I’m just curious how many times otherwise intelligent people need to see and read the name of the world’s most-watched annual event to know that it’s spelled “Super Bowl,” not “Superbowl.”
There is little relationship between intellect and spelling
I remain curious why some otherwise intelligent people can see and read the phrase “Super Bowl” countless times and still wind up spelling it “Superbowl.”
It’s just one of those little oddities that has long intrigued me. Some people’s brains just work differently from mine, I guess.
as a lover of smut and porn, to me it comes down to this question:
is it reasonable for prudish christian family values types to expect that they can watch the superbowl half time show with their kids on network television without their sensibilities being purposefully affronted?
as far as i’m concerned the answer is yes.
I concur. I don’t blame the more prudish of Americans for being pissed off about the display. They’re not overreacting. They had reasonable expectation that stuff like this wouldn’t happen.
Personally I don’t mind stuff like JJ’s boobs on TV, but I know that the aforementioned folks do, and I am not going to call them all idiots because of it.
American puritanism is frustrating, but there are worse sins.
I’ve followed this rule of thumb for quite awhile: whenever anyone says, “It’s not about the First Amendment, it’s about…”, it’s about the First Amendment.
> The outrage was manufactured only after people saw the incident replayed a million times in slo-mo on the news.
mike gallagher, the absolute worst conservative talk radio host i’ve ever heard, expressed support for some joker filing a lawsuit seeking damages for having witnessed the event. guess he’s a part time tort reformer.
This is an interesting part of the Smoking Gun’s explanation of the sample they got of FCC complaints:
But while so many complainants claimed to have been shocked at the site of Jackson’s breast, not a single e-mail provided to TSG (pursuant to a Freedom of Information request) was sent the night of the game. It wasn’t until the American Family Association and other conservative groups began screaming that the FCC’s mailbox began to swell.
The outrage was manufactured only after people saw the incident replayed a million times in slo-mo on the news. I watched the thing live and didn’t even notice. Her boob was exposed for about two seconds and the camera was pretty far away.