After Janet Jackson’s “Nipplegate”, M.I.A’s “finger gate”?

AFTER Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” in the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, US broadcasters initiated delays, giving censors time to blot out any obscenity or profanity and to avoid the kind of furore caused by “nipplegate” (Jackson’s breast was briefly exposed during the live show). But at last night’s forty-sixth Super Bowl final there was, it seems, a censorship malfunction. A close-up of British artist M.I.A., finger-flicking and swearing into the camera, was beamed into the 47.8 per cent of US TV homes that had tuned in to watch the sporting event of the year.

The rude dance move came halfway through an extravagant Madonna show where M.I.A. was among the big-name guest performers. The censors tried to take action but missed the moment: a blurred screen came just moments after M.I.A. had stuck her middle digit up and rapped “Imma say this once, yeah, I don’t give a shit”. As for Madonna she was busy gyrating in the background.

The politically-tempered Paper Planes star certainly stole the limelight from the ageing Queen of Pop. But was it intentional? On Sunday night it wasn’t just broadcaster NBC and the National Football League (NFL) that were apologetic. A source closed to M.I.A. said she had been struck by “a case of adrenaline”, the L.A. Times reported. The source said: “She wasn’t thinking… It wasn’t any kind of statement. She was caught in the moment and she’s incredibly sorry.”

Unsurprisingly, for some sorry just won’t do. Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council, was outraged. “NBC fumbled and the NFL lied because a performer known as M.I.A. felt it necessary to flip off millions of families”, Winter said in a statement. “It is unfortunate that a spectacular sporting event was overshadowed once again by broadcasting the selfish acts of a desperate performer.”

A suggestion for Winter: the wave of complaints, drawn-out court cases and censorious broadcasting regulations that followed ‘Nipplegate’ do more to overshadow spectacular sporting events than do seconds-long airings of nude breasts and flipped fingers.

Here’s M.I.A.’s controversial finger-flip at Sunday night’s Super Bowl halftime show: