No Balls at the Super Bowl

While in Europe, the 'Danish cartoon' controversy has sparked a debate on 'freedom of expression' and its limits, not only do mst US media have not reproduced the cartoon out of 'cultural sensibility' but censorship is becoming more prevalent in the lives of Americans.

The latest exemple is obviously the Super-Bowl:

When the Rolling Stones sand "Start Me Up," one of their most widely played hits, the vocals suddenly went silent as Jagger finished the risque line "You make a dead man [come] " and another word, a sexually suggestive synonym for rooster [if you can't guess, we will dare to say it was the word 'cock'], was omitted near the start of "Rough Justice".
I guess since Janet showed some boob, the paraonoia has run high. Everybody is afraid of losing some big contract here.From a "moral" point of view, I must add, this sort of censorship seems to be "ridiculous" indeed (as the Rolling Stones have said). Either you're old enough to get it - and one should assume you're an adult and can 'take' it, or you're too young and don't get it. I doubt that kids are going to be asking their parents about those lyrics. (It reminds me of the South Park episode about the word sh-t and beeps!)

So what's the big deal? What about the rebellious spirit of good old rock'n'roll? Has it aged along with the babyboomers who are now in power? It makes you wonder.

Interestingly, those questions do not seem to be discussed much and the debate seems rather to focus on whether the Stones agreed to the cut (Chicago Tribune). :

A Stones spokeswoman Tuesday refuted the league's contention that Mick Jagger agreed to self-censor his lyrics during the band's Super Bowl halftime performances of "Start Me Up" and "Rough Justice"--and the NFL backed down from its initial contention that he had.

Either they are telling the truth, or they just don't have the balls to admit they backed down to the financial pressure. It's all about money after all, isn't it? not about morality!