Fox stifles Field at Emmy Awards

September 17, 2007

The Emmy Awards show was on time-delay last night, which offered Fox the chance to edit the live show and block “offensive” content. When Sally Field was giving her acceptance speech last night, however, Fox made a decision that warrants some follow-up.

At tonight’s Emmy Awards show, the audience cheered Sally Field’s acceptance speech, which recognized the mothers of U.S. troops. “Surely this [award] belongs to all the mothers of the world,” she stated. “May they be seen, may their work be valued and raised. Especially to the mothers who stand with an open heart and wait. Wait for their children to come home from danger, from harm’s way, and from war. I am proud to be one of those women.”

Field then continued, “If mothers ruled the world, there would be no –” But the Fox Emmycast cut off her sound and pointed the camera away from the stage, silencing the rest of her sentence: “god-damned wars in the first place.”

This is what U.S. viewers saw during the live event.

As the WaPo’s Tom Shales noted, “If Fox censored Field for political reason, it would be an ugly first in the history of the Emmys.” Indeed, it’s exactly why the network should explain its decision today.

I’m not at all an expert on which words are considered “bad” for the purposes of network broadcasts, but the LAT’s Emmy blogger noted:

Technically, Field’s censored words are not profane. A 2004 FCC ruling specifically stated no objection to the use of “god damn” on TV when making a judgment on the uproar over Bono swearing at the Golden Globes in 2003 where he used more colorful language.

That said, I realize that “goddamn” may be considered risque. Here’s my question: why not just bleep the offending word? If Fox was worried about whether the word crossed the line, it could have blocked it instead of Field’s entire anti-war sentiment (and the enthusiastic response it received from the audience).

It’s certainly possible that an overly-sensitive puritan was at the switch, and the decision to block the comments had nothing to do with politics. But it was a News Corp. broadcast. For that matter, after AT&T censored Pearl Jam recently over another anti-war remark, one starts to get a little suspicious.

For what it’s worth, asked for a reaction in the press room later, Field told reporters, “I would have liked to have said more four-letter words up there!”

Post Script: And the headline award goes to Digby: “They Censored Her, They Really Censored Her.”

I can’t imagine God blesses wars. So maybe, by definition, wars are god-damned?

  • Busting loose with profanity in front of large groups is almost always a bad idea, because it gives the pro-war forces a cheesy but arguably plausible excuse to censor you instead of forcing them to listen to the TRUTH. If I had a shot at getting an anti-war rant out in front of millions of people like that, I would forego the swearing to make it that much harder for the creeps at Fox to censor.

    We need more people speaking out against the war, but we need to do it in ways that can’t be easily dismissed by the people who may be looking for reasons to oppose this war. Cussing makes us feel good, but that shouldn’t be the object of the exercise.

  • Maybe entertainment awards shows should start boycotting Fox. Distortion and censorship of political figures is one thing, but start messing with prime time entertainment programming and you might even get people’s attention.

  • As it happens, I watched the show last night, rooting for a couple of new shows that deserved more recognition than they got.

    Sally Field wasn’t the only one censored. And in each case, I thought it was a blatantly political move by Fox.

  • “I can’t imagine God blesses wars.” If you haven’t read the Torah/Old Testament recently, you need to give that a read.

    CalD has the right idea. Time for such entertainment award/other groups to cancel contracts over this and to start boycotting Fox and any other network or product (AT&T) that feels they have the right to censor anything. Most people would have had no problem with a bleep of ‘god damned’ while allowing the full short speech to be aired. The Emmy’s are probably deemed ‘family entertainment’ and there may have been some younguns watching, so that seems like a reasonable compromise. But to eliminate the last half of that sentence is blatant censorship of political speech and not of any type of profanity.

  • Censorship is not a new tool in FraudNews’ collection of stunts; it never has been, and it will continue long after Bushylvania’s “heretics of the truth” are dead and gone. The only way to inflict meaningful damage is to boycott all things Rupert.

    If WSJ says something, and another source can be justifiably cited—then cite the alternate source.

    If a FOX broadcast subsidiary advertises a product, and the same advertisement appears on another broadcast source, then call the company and tell them you saw the commercial on that other broadcast. If you can get the CS rep on the phone to mention the local FOX affiliate, just add the comment that “I don’t watch that channel.” The point is, don’t hit Rupert with a simplistic boycott. Crank it up to full power, and identify others sources for the same thing. Hit him everywhere he makes a buck—right down to the local level.

    It’s time to teach Rupert the true meaning of “total war….”

  • I agree with Racerx (sorry if that is offensive too you, Racer). Why did she have to throw in the explicative? CB, just look at the recent fines the FCC has levied on other instances of swearing on TV and I think you have your answer why FOX edited her comments. They did let her go on for a while (although she did initially struggle to get her statement out) before she threw out the g-word. I don’t think there’s any controversy here.

    That said, why does the entertainment industry feel like once they get a mike in their face, they must speak their mind on an unrelated topic? Why does Sally Field, Babs, etc have any credibility of the subject? Does the fact that they can memorize lines, sing well or cry on cue, give theme license to waste their audiences’ time with their rhetoric?

  • It seems like they cut the camera pretty quick- seems like they knew what she was going to say. She barely got “Ga-” out, much less “god-damned” (if that was supposed to be the reason they cut the camera/mic.

    She did sound like she was reading something prepared.

  • Swan, perhaps that was some tape delay technology in action?

    Hm, makes sense. But I guess since this wasn’t live, that they didn’t just censor “God damned” also the rest of the sentence but proves all the more that it was political.

  • I wholeheartedly agree with RacerX in #2, BTW. When the Left talks about foreign policy or national security it’s like when women move into a traditionally male-dominated profession. It’s not a level playing field. It isn’t enough to be right on the facts, you have to be above reproach in presentation as well if you want anyone to even hear your argument. People are all too willing to fall back on stereotypes given even the slightest excuse and the right-wing attack machine is a finely honed instrument, always ready to pounce and fully capable of exploiting any opportunity presented. Give ’em an injudicious choice of words in the headline of an ad, for example, and it doesn’t matter what the rest the ad said or how true it was. All that anyone (other than the people who already agree with you) is ever likely to hear about is the headline.

  • oops, omitted a word:

    Hm, makes sense. But I guess since this wasn’t live, that they didn’t just censor “God damned” ,but also the rest of the sentence but proves all the more that it was political.

  • Michael W @ #4: Who else got censored? I didn’t see the show, but I’d be interested to know. (Maybe there’s a link to a news story about it.)

    I think that we are seeing the “Streisand Effect” at work here. Sally Fields’ remarks are getting at least ten times the attention they would have received without Fox’s stupid censor at work.

    The excuse of censoring “goddam” won’t wash. Have you ever listened to the language on the Fox “drama” shows? About the only thing you can’t say on TV anymore is the “f” word.

  • If you haven’t read the Torah/Old Testament recently, you need to give that a read.

    G-d hasn’t “blessed” a war in over five millennia (if we are go by the accounts in the Torah). Unless you can cite an example in the last few thousand years of someone blowing a trumpet and bringing down a city through divine intervention, I’d say it’s a fair assessment that G-d does not condone warfare.

  • racerX and others make a good point, reminding me of the late, great vonnegut, who said swearing gives people who disagree with you an excuse not to listen. fucking A, kurt.

  • Political censorship by Foecks. Any non-reptilian creatures working for their Murdoch Master should be ashamed.

    And the trolls wonder why we use slang like “Reich Wing” and “Das Base.”

  • Of course this was censorship but we’re wasting our time preaching to the choir on this one. Those who might have been persuaded by Fields’ sentiment and our outrage will not be. She said a naughty word, and placed it right next door to the name of their God.

    Unfortunately, we do have to don our kid gloves for the superstitious and self-righteous.

  • For that matter, after AT&T censored Pearl Jam recently over another anti-war remark, one starts to get a little suspicious.

    Suspicious?
    Towards big media CEO’s who contribute to the Bush campaign?
    Suspicious?
    Just a little bit?

    Hey… try on this related quote for size:

    The Federal Communications Commission has just been advised by the US department of justice, under heavy lobbying from the operators who stand to gain from higher data charges, that a neutral net might “prevent, rather than promote” investment and innovation.This is twaddle. An open-access net has produced one of the greatest surges of innovation ever recorded and has given an opportunity for people all over the world to communicate with each other and share knowledge on equal terms. Long may it continue to be so.

    Suspicious?

  • It happened at least two other times during the Emmy awards when the camera was pointed away from the stage at something that looked like a disco ball and the sound disappeared. When Ms. Field denounced war and the sound dropped off again, I told my husband that I bet Fox was censoring comments.

  • “G-d hasn’t “blessed” a war in over five millennia (if we are go by the accounts in the Torah). Unless you can cite an example in the last few thousand years of someone blowing a trumpet and bringing down a city through divine intervention, I’d say it’s a fair assessment that G-d does not condone warfare.”

    You speak very definitively on the subject. Please provide some documentable and objective proof to support your statement. Have you been speaking with God? I merely point out that in what some folks tell me is the absolute truth and word of God that God himself has ‘in fact’ blessed wars, and that a number of the ‘prophets’ who wrote at that time, and who’s works are contained in the Torah/Old testament have prophesized that God will once again do so to return His people to the land He promised their forefathers. According to the ‘definitive’ statements of GOd He has blessed wars, and He will do so again. I have no idea if He has over the past centuries or millenia, but there is no proof that He has not. Who knows, this whole nonsense in Iraq could very well be blessed by God and we just do not know it yet. It’s my understanding that the Torah/Old Testament was not really a play by play of events as they occurred but instead a rememberance of things that happened in the past. Who knows, that could be the case right now. I doubt it but who knows. And an equally if not more accurate conclusion from current events over the past couple centuries is that God has not stepped up to condone all the wars we have had, so maybe His silence is indicative of support for warfare (not that I would agree with that). But to get to the bottom line issue, God has in fact blessed wars if one assumes that the Torah/Old Testament is the word of God.

  • And as for bringing down cities through ‘divine intervention’ I think many have already argued that ‘divine intervention’ has recenlty brought down places like New Orleans as well as many places in the Middle East and Asia due to Earthquakes and tsunamis. Can’t say I necessarily agree, but there you go.

  • For those who asked about the censorship:

    2007 Emmy Awards

    The censors also bleeped presenter Ray Romano and “Grey’s Anatomy” supporting actress winner Katherine Heigl.

    For some reason, I also seem to remember either Al Gore or his co-winner being bleeped, but I may be mistaken there. Beer, you know. 😉

  • “It’s certainly possible that an overly-sensitive puritan was at the switch, and the decision to block the comments had nothing to do with politics.”

    You don’t think puritanism, sincere or posed, is political? Get real.

  • Interesting how AT&T edited out Peral Jam’s anti-Bush song on their concert webcast, and TV stations wouldn’t allow the distributors of Dixie Chick’s documentary to buy ads. Apparently, Clear Channel makes musicians sign wavers promising not to say anything against the war before they’ll let them do concerts.

    For me, the reason the First Amendment singles out the government from not infringing on one’s right to speech is that they were the only powers the founding fathers thought could shut people down. As far as I’m concerned, this also needs to apply to these huge media companies who control our discourse. It’s our public airwaves, after all.

  • Confirms that the right-wing corporate establishment cannot survive without war. A threat to war is a threat to their very existence. Manifestly, the anti-war movement is their biggest fear, greater even than an adverse puritanical FCC ruling. Shocking (but predictable).

  • Does anyone have the non-censored version of Fields’ speech? I read somewhere that it was broadcast in Canada without censorship. If so, please post!

  • Tape delay censorship decisions are knee-jerk decisions, made in moments. As soon as Ms. Field started her last, uncensored sentence in honor of mothers waiting for children to come home from war, the censor’s finger had to be headed for the button.

    Emmy should take its business elsewhere.

  • Come on, Shel. That’s crap. We’ve got problems in the US that we’re gonna fix, and we’re not leaving. Sorry to disappoint you.

    I heard enough of that “love it or leave it” crap in the Vietnam era.

  • Actually Shel, if you like censorship so much, you should move someplace where most find that acceptable. I suggest Saudi Arabia. Or Russia. Or maybe Khazakstan. I am sure China would love to have you as well.

  • Just amazes me that people spout this crap based on something they read in a book. Or something someone told them they read in a book. No experience, have seen or heard nothing in their own experience, cannot show or prove it but turn around and say this must be the truth because this book says so and so do the makers and readers of this book.

    Goddamn is a word like motherfucker…not to be taken literally.
    Due to the time delay the censor knew what Fields was gonna say and it had the ‘war’ word in it and she is a liberal…. Fox sucks and they are proud of it, goddamn it.

  • I listened to Sean Hannity today, waiting for him to spend the whole show talking about how the media wants to suppress free speech, since it’s one of his favorite topics. Nothing.

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  • The Flying Nun acted inappropriately in attempting to hijack an event to express her political views. This was a forum created for another specific purpose, and I think that her behavior was discourteous to those staging the event, the advertisers, and the TV audience. The lady should develop some sense of propriety, and control herself.

    The seeming imperative that compels some people to intrude political opinions into the vast panorama of human undertakings is so declasse.

    What is pathetic regarding these efforts is that persons in the entertainment industry particularly, are quite often only superficially informed regarding matters on which they deliver their opinions. Many of them are high school dropouts. Acting talent does not necessarily confer other insights. But, I suppose the profession requires development of quite a large ego, so the practitioners of “the thesbian arts” are ex officio, pretentious.

    God bless her. I think that she is delightful. But she should lighten up.

  • A simple question will solve the entire debate, JRS:

    “How many times has the term “god-damned” appear in Fox Broadcasting television programs?”

    The prosecution rests….

  • “If mothers ruled the world” is the most naive statement I’ve ever heard. We need to take a stand against terrorism. Has everyone forgot that we were attacked in 93 and then the USS Cole was attacked and then the twin towers AGAIN. It’s about time we took a stand. I have friends and family that have been to Iraq and I find what she said very offensive.

  • If only mothers ruled the world, they wouldn’t have been to Iraq and they wouldn’t find it offensive.

    d&r

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