One of the most competitive and entertaining Super Bowl games is being overshadowed by a cheap marketing stunt for selling CDs. Lost in the debate over the bare breast is the accomplishment of the losing quarterback, who set two Super Bowl records, and the winning quarterback, who never lost his cool and methodically marched to the win in the final seconds.
Tha battle lines have been drawn in that cauldron of the true voice of the people, talk radio. Rush Limbaugh insists it could not have been an accident, as otherwise why would she be wearing a pasty? Howard Stern counters that he got a good look, and it is not a pasty but protection for a body piercing. Michael Savage complains that this gratuitous titillation plus all the Animal House ads is grist for the mill of Osama bin Laden and his demonizing of America.
Not to be outdone, the new voice of the people, the blogsphere, scooped talk radio. The Drudge Report hinted that the stunt had been planned, but a 'wardrobe malfunction' had exposed more than was intended. Somehow the racy red bra came off, too. Does this somehow make it all right?
The FCC is weighing in to start an investigation. Not sure if this is another signpost on the road to a police state, but the effectiveness of the FCC in regulating morality has been a bust, so to speak. As FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps noted: "Nothing this commission has done so far has accomplished anything to slow down Big Media's race to the bottom." Or race to be the breast that it can be. The Boob Tube lives down to its name.
Ironically, the more they react, the more they prove her point - the stunt worked. The music industry has always been about rebellion, pushing the limits. The more she gets in trouble, the more CDs she should sell. And just before the Grammies, too ... Her career has been a bit of a bust until now.
The biggest boob in this whole affair may turn out to be the Prez. While the whole town was a flutter over what to do, The Leader Of The Free World said he had fallen asleep watching the first half (well, it was a bit of a 'defensive struggle') and didn't see the incident. Shades of his behavior on 9/11, where he seemed strangely out of touch for the critical first few hours, finally emerging after having flown around on Air Force One all morning. Not knowing what to do, and not wishing to offend, he abdicates leadership. But he is gathering new intelligence reports on her weapons-of-mass destruction. Maybe he will need to pre-emptively invade Hollywood.