Like 90 million other Americans, I watched the Super Bowl last
Sunday. It was a great game. Mind, I make no claims of being a
football fan. I once described a game to my husband thus:
”
Two bunches of guys line up, facing each other. They run at each
other. They fall down. They get up and do it again.
”
Like 90 million other Americans, I watched the Super Bowl last Sunday. It was a great game. Mind, I make no claims of being a football fan. I once described a game to my husband thus: “Two bunches of guys line up, facing each other. They run at each other. They fall down. They get up and do it again.”
Nonetheless, the kids and my husband and I went to Pizza Cove. We split a giant pepperoni and bell pepper. The kids split a pitcher of root beer. My husband and I split a pitcher of Coast Range. We cheered the Panthers‚ passes and the Patriots runs with equal enthusiasm.
Anne begged for quarters for video games during the commercial breaks. Oliver was given quarters without having to demean himself by beggary. Anne and her daddy left the room to play air hockey during halftime, thank God.
In retrospect, I wish I had given her more quarters, as most of the commercials were vulgar. The halftime show was worse, and I do not mean just Janet Jackson’s and Justin Timberlake’s strip-dance.
I found the whole show offensive: the dirty dancing, the simulated sex, the lyrics, the tear-away costumes. I dislike seeing women portraying themselves as whores, and men portraying themselves as rapists. You’ve come a long way, baby – from repressed to rape victim. Congratulations.
Here is the funny part. I watch very little TV, as we do not own one. Consequently, for the whole three-hour Super Bowl, watching those crass commercials and that horrid half-time, I kept thinking, “My, TV is certainly a lot cruder than it was three years ago. How can people watch this?”
The next day, I was vastly reassured to read, on Internet news, that the FCC chairman was as appalled as I was. It was even reassuring to see CBS and MTV and Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake lying about the breast-baring incident. At least they have some sense of shame.
First Janet and Justin said it was unplanned – baloney! I saw it; it was as choreographed as a pas de deux. Then they changed the story; it was planned, yes, but due to a “wardrobe malfunction,” the piece of red lace that was supposed to preserve the proprieties did not materialize.
This version two would be a lot more believable had it not been preceded by version one. Furthermore, I personally find it offensive to see men ripping clothing off of women live on prime-time TV, and I do not care how little gets ripped off.
CBS and MTV are saying they did not know about that part of the act. But Matt Drudge reports that a “well-placed source” in New York says that the decision to go forward with the dance was approved at the “very top of the network.”
In related news, Howard Dean says it’s no big deal. I will be interested to see if his campaign gets a boost from that statement. And McDonald’s, which uses Justin Timberlake as a spokesman, says that although the incident was inappropriate, they will stand by the singer. I think I will go to In-‘N’-Out Burger for lunch instead.
If you want to send a letter to the FCC about the incident, and you have Internet access, it is very simple. Go to the American Family Association’s website: www.afa.net/activism/fcccomplaint.asp. Our affiliate station is KPIX. Print out a complaint letter.
Mail it to the FCC. (They only accept paper complaints, not e-complaints.) Send a copy to senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and your representative. (Mine is Mike Honda, but unfortunately, greater Gilroy has been gerrymandered into, I believe, three different Congressional districts, so I cannot be sure who yours is.)
Or write your own letter. Non-form letters carry more weight, anyway.
The address is:
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, S.W.
Complaints and Political Programming Branch
Enforcement Division, Mass Media Bureau
Washington DC 20554
Believe me, if CBS is fined millions of dollars, they will clean up their act, or acts, plural. ABC and NBC will follow suit. If they are not fined, then the next time I watch TV, in three years or so, Janet and Justin’s pas de deux will seem tame.
