Best protest of Super Bowl debacle is your TV's 'off' button

Originally Published: February 10, 2004 6 p.m.

It would be amusing were it not so pathetic, to see everyone involved in Sunday's Super Bowl halftime debacle back pedal furiously in the wake of outrage over their tasteless display.

During the show of suggestive, crotch-grabbing "music," Justin Timberlake reached across Janet Jackson's chest and tore off her costume, exposing her breast. He issued a statement shortly after the show stating that Jackson's exposure was a "wardrobe malfunction." But later, according to an Associated Press report, on the syndicated show "Access Hollywood," Timberlake joked about the incident - "Hey man, we love giving you all something to talk about."

That attitude was obvious from the planning stages of Sunday's show. A choreographer, in an interview with MTV.com before the show, promised "shocking moments." Timberlake sang "Rock Your Body," in which one of the lines is "I'm gonna have you naked by the end of this song."

Chris Ender, entertainment spokeman for CBS, said the singers and dancers did not rehease the incident, that it happened completely without the network's knowledge. The NFL expressed its "disappointment." MTV said the incident was completely unintentional.

Even if you give all of these suddenly "shocked and disappointed" individuals the benefit of the doubt and believe for a moment that they didn't know ahead of time that they were about to scale new heights of sleaze on national TV, you have to question their credibility when you look at the people they chose to perform a show that families all over the world would be watching.

These are not stupid people, in the strictest sense of the word. They run a public relations dynasty 24-7 in which they must constantly gauge public reaction. To gauge wrongly can cost them millions, and we can only hope that this incident will do so. Unfortunately, that probably won't be the case. Remember Timberlake's comment?

The "entertainment" industry will continue to push the envelope until regular viewers push back and say "enough."

And there's no better way to do that than simply use the "off" button on your TV.