Monday, February 02, 2004

Money to burn, but spending it in the wrong place.

Lets see, below the 49th line they have a President that may, or may not have sent his country to war under less than honest pretenses. They have airlines canceling flights to America, on just the possibility that someone bad might have thought about taking the flight that day. The country exists under a bizarre colour coded alert system, one that only seems to make everyone more anxious than secure. And yet, they can find time to have the FCC take the time to investigate whether or not we really should have seen Ms. Janet Jackson's breast. Is this not something that should happen on an episode of Saturday Night Live, the Simpsons or maybe a less than well written episode of West Wing.

For those few folks who haven't been near a TV, radio or newspaper today Ms. Jackson and Justin Timberlake brought the house (and half her top) down during the half time show yesterday. With a finale that no doubt had Brittney Spears and Madonna hot on the phone, planning their next prime time event. During the last moments of a song called "Rock Your Body", Mr. Timberlake reached across Ms. Jackson's body and pulled off a covering of her breast revealing her natural endowment, complete with a fine looking brooch in an eye catching location.

The howling commenced shortly thereafter, the NFL, CBS, MTV, the FCC and the United Jewellers foundation all expressed sadness and disappointment, at the flagrant display of the freedom seeking attribute. And that's where we should all call a time out, to use an NFL term.

First off, who booked the half time show, a sport that is about as middle class as one can get turns over it's main television time to Hip Hop Express? How many folks around North America were saying to themselves whatever happened to that nice Celine Dion woman? That after watching P Diddy, Nelly and Kid Rock gyrating across the stage. Last year at the Super Bowl we had Toby Keith offering to put an American boot up someone's ass, cause it's the American Way. I wonder how many we're channeling Toby to the stage yesterday, to place said boot to Kid Rock's flag draped butt?

The show was produced by MTV, you mean to tell me that not one person in the NFL offices has ever seen MTV, the half time show was just one long Janet Jackson video. And really, the 12 minutes of televised mayhem, suggestiveness and nudity, was tame compared to an average quarter hour of what's entertainment on MTV these days. If the FCC is just now wondering about what's on the tube, then they've surely missed the boat for a number of years.

But that's not where the hypocrisy is, it's in the chagrin of the NFL bemoaning the introduction of a perception of sex into a football game. This from a league that sanctioned something called the lingere bowl to pay per view, for those folks that maybe found Ms. Jackson just too tame these days. A league that has cheerleading teams for all franchises, and folks these are not your college style cheerleaders, there's a lot more sizzle, than zis boom bah.

And then there's the beer, the NFL is in existence so breweries can sell beer, how do they sell beer, they use sexy girls in their ads to sell beer. The NFL has been living off sex appeal and booze for over 38 years now, a little late to be expressing those Puritanical values.

But no the investigation will go on, heads are to roll and fines will be levied. New directives will be released, more regulations will be drafted. I know perhaps future Super Bowl broadcasts can come with a colour warning system, but then again, that idea doesn't seem to be working so well these days either.

Here's some free advice for the FCC. Put away the wallet, save the taxpayers some money and cancel the investigation. The public was used, Janet used them, Justin used them, CBS used them, the NFL used them. Deal with the concept of being misled, hell it's apparently the American way now.

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