The Long, Low Road

You’ve heard all about it by now: More than 90 million U.S. viewers watching the Super Bowl on CBS got a flash of Janet Jackson’s bare breast after half of her leather bustier was ripped away by stage partner Justin Timberlake in the finale of their song-and-dance performance.

The lights had hardly dimmed before the Monday morning quarterbacking began. Officials at CBS issued an apology to viewers, claiming the exposure caught them by surprise. Cable network MTV -- which spent millions and months planning the halftime gala and last week hyped its “shocking moments” -- claimed the show’s climax was “unrehearsed, unplanned, completely unintentional.” Timberlake blamed a “wardrobe malfunction.” Jackson on Monday admitted she cooked up the whole thing, but it’s unclear who else knew.

The Super Bowl halftime show has evolved into a spectacle all its own -- a way to keep the not-so-rabid football fan engaged in the nation’s biggest game -- and into a large ratings booster. In fact, many younger viewers tend to skip the game and tune in just for the halftime concert. The big game is no longer only the domain of the testosterone-charged, but rather a daylong extravaganza that draws whole families into its orbit. This time, the family of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell was among them.

Powell said he was “outraged.” He ordered an investigation into whether the display violated regulations that bar the broadcast of “indecent” material during hours when children are likely to be watching.

The crotch-grabbing and gyrating on display Sunday were hardly family fare even before Jackson’s garment was ripped off. Television has been going down the low road for a long time. Sex sells, and a lot buy, apparently.

Is the Jackson incident really that big a deal? Was a bare breast any worse than all those booze and erectile-dysfunction ads that bombarded Super Bowl viewers? Truth is, all of it is tacky. Does that mean that there can be no place for Americans to draw the line? We say no. Let Powell have his investigation. Ultimately, it won’t go anywhere. But it could be a springboard for a national conversation about popular American culture -- the one the United States exports and extols abroad -- and just how coarse this country wants it to become.

In the meantime, the chill already has begun to set in. As in all things trendy, what matters is not what the government says but what the buzz on the street says. And the buzz -- that is, what’s being said by the very kids the show was meant to pull in -- recognizes the “wardrobe malfunction” for what it is: a pathetically obvious publicity stunt that reeks of career desperation. And that, even an editorial page knows, is not cool.