What I find shocking is that people were shocked by the halftime show.  It must be that for some people this was the first time they've tuned into a halftime show in the last twenty years.  

A guy grabbing his crotch?  On National Television?  Why, I never! Women in skimpy outfits?  At a football game?  Can you imagine?  Next thing you know they'll have 11 or 12 women showing their belly-buttons and wearing push-up bras and yelling "Go Team" at every game. Disgusting.  The NFL selling sex and rock and roll as well as the game?  Why, who can believe it, when normally they're up there on the moral high ground of Olympus.  

I was watching the show with my seven-year old daughter, but luckily she was already ruined by my having taken her to Paris where they regularly show breasts on soap ads.  All that exposure to nipples may also explain their failure to take the moral high ground on the Saddam issue.

Chris Stuart





-----Original Message-----
From: "Dr. Joe Dumas" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2004 10:55:33 -0500
Subject: Re: [UTCSTAFF] Repulsive Super Bowl Halftime

Sheila Delacroix wrote:
> And while we are getting rid of the inane, foolishness that passes for a
> Super Bowl half-time show, how about we get rid of the inane, violent,
> brutal, only-put-on-to-make-lots-of-money foolishness that passes for the
> Super Bowl.

Hey, if you don't like football, don't watch football.  There are plenty
of other channels.  Anyone who turns on the TV to watch a football game
knows exactly what to expect in terms of physical violence.  I was just
hoping for a close game, and luckily (many Super Bowls have been
blowouts) I actually saw one.

Don Harris wrote:
> In case anyone else was repulsed by the Super Bowl halftime show, here is
> some information to pass along.
>
>  >->Send an email to the FCC, your Representative and two Senators.
>  >http://capwiz.com/afanet/issues/alert/?alertid=4953551&type=ML
>  >
>  >->File a formal complaint with the FCC.
>  >http://www.afa.net/petitions/fcccomplaint.asp
>  >
>  >->Call the FCC at 1-888-225-5322 and complain.

Don has a point in that people who tuned in to watch the Super Bowl
were, for the most part, NOT expecting the sort of halftime
"entertainment" that was presented.  And thus they have a valid reason
for complaining.

But, for gosh sake, keep the government out of it.  Instead, call or
write CBS ... they are the ones who televised it ... and ask them never
to allow MTV to produce another halftime (or any other) show for them.
Boycott MTV if you like, and if CBS won't promise to stay away from MTV
in the future you can boycott them too.  In other words, vote with your
feet (or your remote control)!  The economic damage we can do to these
networks by simply changing channels (or turning off the set) is more
appropriate, and more significant, than sicking a bunch of government
bureaucrats on them.  The free market works if you let it.

Joe Dumas


Christopher Stuart
UC Foundation Assistant Professor
English Department
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga