i genuinely don't understand the fuss over this.

can an american cousin enlighten me as to why the country that gave us Baywatch and Playboy appears to be going bananas over one brief flash of (largely covered) nipple?

Because we're puritanical at heart.

Context is everything.

Anyone tuning into Babewatch or buying Playboy knows what they are likely to see.

Though the NFL is creeping into the same marketing territory as the World Wrestling Federation, they and the network presenting the Super Bowl like to push the event as wholesome family entertainment.

You don't expect to see the Folies Berge when you're sold a ticket to 'Hello, Dolly'.

although it didn't hurt the ratings, i notice!

The ones probably at their wits ends right now are the network executives at Fox, which will carry next year's Super Bowl. Given the "Fox Attitude" the network tries to project as being edgier than CBS, NBC or ABC, the suits there are no doubt wracking their brains alreaqdy to come up with an idea for an NFL halftime show that maintains that image while not antagonizing either the league or the Federal Communications Commission.

That probably means a litteral "Fox Box" appearing on the screen is out of the question. But an animated Homer Simpson mooning the Super Bowl audience is still a possibility...

Brit: I censor a lot of tv that my children watch (fairly easy to do since they only get 1 hour a day). This is what libertarians have been advocating for years. I think if they are going to present crude material than the audience should be informed ahead of time so they can do what they've been told is their right and responsibility for years. Sure, I expected cheesiness, but I didn't expect cheesy sleaziness.

What I find so shocking is that Europeans (and most liberals and libertarians here) place such a low value on innocence that it is treated much like a flu that one should get over as quickly as possible. I know innocence cannot be preserved forever, but it is tiresome to hear from the jaded that it is hardly worth preserving the few, and far too brief, years of innocence. Hey, if you live a normal life span you will get 50+ years of cynical, world weary experience, so what is the rush to get over 10 or 15 years of innocence, that once gone are gone forever?

this is a tangent, but...

i know you chaps like to characterise 'europeans' as effete, liberal, anything-goes, wife-swapping nudists...

but remember that that's a very gross caricature.

there are plenty of european puritans. ever heard of someone called Mary Whitehouse? Or Pope John Paul II?

'european' is not a synonym for 'ethical liberal'. you're thinking of 'french' :)

That must be a misprint for "raises the bra."

Brit:

The Pope's congregation is in the Third World, not Europe.

actually, most of them seem to be in malta. that place is amazing

If, in fact, Jackson cooked this up herself, without informing anyone, I find her behavior dispicable.

She may well benefit, but at the expense of everyone else involved in the game, and also at the expense of future Super Bowl presentations.

She's no different from any other self-centered criminal, and I hope that she gets sued if the network gets fined.

Sued for what - breach of clothing?

Brit:
How could it hurt the ratings?--no one knew it was coming. And people want to watch the game, especially when it was so close. It could potentially hurt the half-time ratings for next year, though I'm sure the NFL will stress "family friendly" ad nauseum in their commercials next year.

Of course this whole thing is a brilliant publicity stunt. They just misjudged the vehemence of the angry backlash. But they'll only get a slap on the wrist, so there is no reason for the next guy not to do something even more over the top. And since CBS won't be severely punished (massive fines or license revocation would be met with howls of outrage from the media), you can't very well do so for the next time.

Just another step into the sewer. Guaranteed in a decade or so you'll see nudity on sitcoms. How much longer before "edgy" just means hard-core pornography? And then how long before that seems quaint?

Brit, it is offensive on several levels. As Chris points out, it is an encroachment of one context on another. The Super Bowl is about football, and football related values. The half-time show should complement those values, and not compete for attention. Some football fans may enjoy watching the MTV slut-divas compete in cultural dumpster diving, but most would rather not be forced to view it against their will.

Their is a kind of cultural zoning agreement keeping social peace between the puritans and the libertines - the libertines can have all the raunch they want on cable TV and late-night network TV, and the puritans can have their little domain of wholesome family friendly programming during prime-time network TV hours. This was like a sneak attack, a blatant invasion of one culture onto the turf of the other.