Super Bowl Scandal Du Jour: M.I.A. Flips Bird, NBC Apologizes

Posted on Feb 6, 2012

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Uh-oh: M.I.A. brandishes the bird during Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show.

The funny thing about certain TV watchdogs getting their collective knickers in a twist over upstart pop star M.I.A.’s bird-flipping antics during her performance with Madonna and Nicki Minaj at Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show is that millions of Americans might otherwise have blinked and missed it—that is, until the concerned conservatives kicked up a fuss.

Watch, if you dare, the eyeball-searing moment of moral degeneracy below in the AP’s video coverage of the controversy.  —KA

Los Angeles Times:

The gesture, accompanied by a barely disguised expletive, came during a performance of Madonna’s new single, “Give Me All Your Luvin.”’ At the end of her lines, M.I.A. appeared to sing “I don’t give a (expletive),” although it was hard to hear clearly.

... The Super Bowl, shown on NBC this year, is routinely viewed by more than 100 million people, the biggest TV event of the year. The screen briefly went blurred after M.I.A.‘s gesture in what was a late attempt—by less than a second—to cut out the camera shot.

“The NFL hired the talent and produced the halftime show,” NBC spokesman Christopher McCloskey said. “Our system was late to obscure the inappropriate gesture and we apologize to our viewers.”

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AP via Los Angeles Times:

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