CBS should have expected shock and surprise during halftime

There are occurrences in life that are talked about for a moment, days and, indeed, ages. The latest of these, while intensely exciting, in the long run will be a simple stitch in the proverbial fabric of time.

The joys of live television were perfectly captured in a brief instant Sunday during the Super Bowl halftime show. By now, you all know that Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson shocked and offended countless Americans.

I was not offended. CBS got exactly what was coming. MTV was asked to produce the show and MTV is not now — nor will it ever be — known for family programming.

If higher-ups at CBS were so concerned about presenting a family friendly show, perhaps MTV was not the correct choice. More to the point, why, when executives attended practices for the show during the preceding week, did no one complain about the musical selections themselves? I suppose that it is perfectly family friendly for Nelly to sing “it’s getting hot in here so take off all your clothes.” Of course, I’ll assume then, too, that for Justin Timberlake to sing about having some random female “naked by the end of this song” is fine as well.

Let’s go a bit further. Bring in the FCC to investigate Timberlake and Jackson. Oh that’s right, it’s being done. While that’s happening, we can investigate all the costly commercials aired during the game. Those were not exactly family friendly either.

What else can I complain about? There are loads of topics, but I think this is quite enough. I wonder, though, if anyone else sees the ridiculous nature of all this? I mean really, the FCC? Come on.

People were understandably offended at the culmination of this performance. However, no one complains that the male performers are constantly grabbing their crotches. Is that fine, then? Thanks, just wanted to be certain.

Hopefully, you begin to understand that I feel the whole situation has been blown out of proportion. To be so up in arms over a bit of flesh concerns me. It seems fine to curse, show people in bed together and use off-color humor on prime time television. In addition, it obviously is fine to sing about getting naked, but very wrong to actually attempt theatrical performance of the same nakedness song.

My greatest frustration over this whole situation is that no one seems to mind that Kid Rock cut a hole in an American flag, a symbol of our nation and something sacred to many people, and wore it like a poncho. I would have thought that might have stirred something, but apparently, sex and sexy things still garner all the attention, no matter what you do.

Kimberly Noles is a columnist for the Daily O’Collegian at Oklahoma State University. This column was distributed by U-Wire.