'Nipplegate' continues to transfix the nation
(China Daily)
Updated: 2004-02-16 09:00

Singer Janet Jackson's right breast wasn't the only thing she exposed during her performance at the Super Bowl two weeks ago. She also laid bare the fault lines criss-crossing the social landscape of the US.

To columnists in New York and Los Angeles, the fuss was baffling. In the conservative heartlands, however, the message seemed to be: "No sex, please - we're American."

The political backlash against the performance screened on CBS, during which singer Justin Timberlake tore off part of Jackson's costume, exposing her breast in front of some 90 million television viewers, has been swift and harsh.

Congress already had "indecency" hearings scheduled, but proposals to toughen up the rules for broadcasters were given fresh momentum by Jackson's performance.

The proposals include increasing tenfold the penalty for broadcasters who are seen to have gone too far, a three-strikes rule to revoke the licences of serial offenders, and a warning on programming content after each advertising break.

Broadcasters change styles

Now the threat has even been extended to the hitherto unregulated cable industry, including the likes of HBO, raising the spectre of "Sex and the City" without the sex.

In the wake of the Super Bowl furore, the main free-to-air broadcasters have moved quickly to remove anything that could cause offence, sometimes to ridiculous extremes.

NBC deleted a two-second glimpse of an elderly woman's breast on medical drama "ER." It was a repeat of an episode in which, only a week earlier, the shot had been left in. NBC said the current "atmosphere" made it "too difficult for many of our affiliates to air this shot."

Disney-owned network ABC is considering cuts to a forthcoming episode of police series "NYPD Blue," while CBS removed a shot of a naked man from last week's "Without a Trace." The Grammys were shown on a five-second delay to allow anything risque to be cut out. The NFL cut a half-time song by one of Timberlake's former band mates, JC Chasez, because it contained the word "horny."

Even the cable channel MTV is getting jittery, and has relegated a clutch of videos, including the latest single "Toxic" from Britney Spears in which the catsuit-clad singer simulates sex in an airliner lavatory, to a post-10 pm slot.

Europeans feel perplexed

To European eyes, the tolerance of violent images and bashfulness over sex in the US has long been perplexing.

Director Bernardo Bertolucci railed against the US censors of his new film, "The Dreamers." US distributors had initially planned to cut much of the nudity, but have since decided to give the film the rarely awarded NC-17 rating. That is considered to be box office death, because many cinemas will refuse to screen an NC-17 movie, and some media outlets will not accept advertising for one.

"Some people obviously think the American public is immature," Bertolucci told the Los Angeles Times. "In 1973, 'Last Tango in Paris' opened in America virtually uncut. There was only a formal cut of about two seconds, just so someone could say they'd managed to cut me.

"But now they want to cut more out of this film. So what's going on with America?"

This is a country in which Wal-mart, the biggest retailer, will happily sell guns, but bans racy lads' magazines, partially obscures women's titles such as Cosmopolitan and Marie-Claire, and sells CDs with swear words bleeped out.

The politically-charged grandstanding could have much to do with this being an election year.

FCC to tighten censorship

The US president, George Bush, is reaching out to the Republican core, and it was little surprise to see the Republican-appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reacting to the Super Bowl incident with such vigour.

Michael Powell, the son of the secretary of state, Colin Powell, promised an immediate investigation into the breast-bearing episode. He described it as a "classless, crass and deplorable stunt" and a "new low in prime-time television."

He also reopened an investigation into U2 singer Bono's use of "fucking" as in "this is really, really, fucking brilliant" at the Golden Globes. At least there was one light moment during the hearings for those watching closely enough when one congresswoman described Jackson's performance as "nasty." The singer was, after all, warning us of that in 1986. The current controversy's impact on the broadcasting industry could be profound.

At the hearings this week, Mel Karmazin, the president of Viacom, was deeply apologetic. Karmazin said he was "shocked and appalled and embarrassed by what transpired."

But it is not only politicians that he has to worry about. Cable, which is currently not subject to FCC regulations on decency, has already seized a greater percentage of viewers than the big broadcast networks with its often edgier programming.

If the networks become too conservative, viewers and creative talent, already attracted to the likes of HBO, are likely to turn to cable to an even greater degree.

"NYPD Blue" producer Stephen Bocho said there was a "real climate of anxiety." He told USA Today: "To suddenly find objectionable something that, three days earlier, would not have been, is a hysterical, knee-jerk response. I can't stop them, but I think it's really lame."

Cable, though, is looking over its shoulder. More than 80 per cent of US viewers get their TV through a cable box or satellite dish and, to them, there is little difference between the first six broadcast channels, regulated by the FCC, and the hundreds of others on their programme guides.

It is an argument that some in Congress have taken note of. "Stepping up FCC enforcement certainly takes care of maybe the first six channels on my TV. What happens to the other 400?" Republican Greg Walden asked during a communications committee meeting last month. "I think that's where the worst abuses are, and none of that is being regulated."

Powell has sent a letter to senior figures in the cable industry, asking them to clean up their act voluntarily. Cable, he said, "cannot completely ignore the discontent."

Woman drops lawsuit

Shortly after filing a class-action lawsuit because of her outrage over Janet Jackson's Super Bowl stunt, Terri Carlin believes she has made her point.

The Knoxville banker in Tenessee is withdrawing the suit filed last week in US District Court against Jackson and Timberlake, along with MTV, CBS and their parent company, Viacom.

The lawsuit had sought billions of dollars in compensatory and punitive damages. Carlin alleged she and others who watched the show during the Super Bowl were injured by the performers' lewd actions.

The notice of dismissal filed in federal court says Carlin wants to see if "remedial measures" announced by federal regulators and the companies involved succeed in preventing similar stunts.

Carlin and attorney Wayne A. Ritchie II, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Carlin and has represented her for free, have received phone calls and mail from hundreds of supportive parents from across the country who wanted to be included in the suit, the notice states.

In the lawsuit filed on behalf of "all Americans," Carlin charged that Jackson's exposure and "sexually explicit conduct" by other performers during the halftime show injured viewers.

Jackson apologized for the incident, saying a red lace garment was supposed to remain over her breast when an outer garment was ripped away.

Orrico blasts fellow stars

US chart-topping Christian singer Stacie Orrico said on Saturday that Spears and Christina Aguilera promote "degrading" sexuality that makes them bad role models for young girls.

Dressed in a loose, long-sleeved white shirt and jeans, the fresh-faced pop singer from Nashville, Tennessee, told reporters in Singapore that it worries her to see girls emulating Spears and Aguilera.

"The reason that I don't dress trashy is that I'm trying to set an example for little girls," Orrico said. "From the time they're seven or eight years old, (girls) are being taught that the only thing that makes them special and beautiful is their sexuality and I think that's wrong."

Orrico added she does not approve of flashy, revealing clothes sported by Spears and Aguilera.

"I don't think that's sexy, I think it's degrading," she said. "I think that (being) a truly sexy woman comes from being confident and being classy, respectable and mature."

Orrico also weighed in on Jackson's allegedly accidental breast baring incident, calling the stunt "unnecessary." "I definitely don't think that she's (Jackson) a good example," Orrico said.

The bubbly 17-year-old who's album, "Stacie Orrico" made No 5 on the Billboard's Top Contemporary Christian Albums list this month, is in Singapore to perform at the MTV Asia music awards. She has also been nominated for Best Breakthrough Artist.

On Friday, in her first public appearance since the "Nipplegate" event, Jackson received an award for her humanitarian and charitable contributions.

Behind the Bench, an association of wives of NBA players, honoured Jackson at their annual fund-raiser at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

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