They Hated Her…They Really Hated Her! Sally Field Censored On Emmys
September 17th, 2007
By JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
In 1985 actress Sally Field won an Oscar and bubbled to millions of TV viewers and the Academy: “You like me, you really like me!”
She wasn’t as well liked last night — when she was censored at the Emmys which cut off part of her anti-war comments.
Who’s to blame?
Some news reports specify it is Fox, Rupert Murdoch’s company which includes Fox News, the administration and General David Petraeus’ favorite news network for exclusive interviews conducted by noddingly sympathetic journalists and personalities such as Sean Hannity who ask all the “right” questions and leave out many of the “wrong” ones. But other reports indicate it was “the producers” of the program, which would not necessarily be the network. OR it could in reality have been a combination of both…
No matter. The bottom line is that someone with an itchy finger decided Fields words apparently would be dangerous to the ears of viewers so they censored her.
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.â€
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.â€
Click HERE and see the video.
Producers of Sunday’s Emmy telecast bleeped best drama actress winner Sally Field in the midst of a controversial acceptance speech attacking U.S. involvement in Iraq.
“If mothers ruled the world, there wouldn’t be any god -” she said when the sound went dead and the camera suddenly turned away from the stage so viewers would be distracted. Chopped off were the words “god-damned wars in the first place.” (The phrase was not censored in the Canadian telecast.)
…Backstage, in the press room later, Field told reporters, “I would have liked to have said more four-letter words up there!
“Oh, well. I’ve been there before!” Field added when asked what she thought of the gagging. “Good. I don’t care. I have no comment other than, ‘Oh, well.’ I said what I wanted to say. I wanted to pay homage to the mothers of the world. And I very, very seriously think that if mothers ruled the world we wouldn’t be sending our children off to be slaughtered.”
When she was pressed for further comment, she added, “Too bad. That’s a shame. And I think I probably shouldn’t have said the ‘god’ in front of the ‘damn.’…If they bleep it, oh, well. I’ll just say it somewhere else.”
Were the words profane? No, the Times says:
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.
Popular Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales points out that last night’s telecaste featured several censorship moments — but the others were for language and Sheild’s appeared to be political.
Which would be a milestone:
The third instance of censorship may have been political. Sally Field, making one of her long and rambling acceptance speeches (winning for best actress in a drama on “Brothers & Sisters”), was interrupted by silence when she used a God-related swear word in voicing antiwar sentiments. According to the Associated Press, she said, “If the mothers ruled the world, there would be no [expletive] wars in the first place.”
If Fox censored Field for political reason, it would be an ugly first in the history of the Emmys.
What remains puzzling is why a political statement so mild in this era of screehing talk radio and equally screeching weblogs is censored at all.
If the idea is to prevent it from going out on the airwaves, the next day the incident will be all over the news, in newspapers and flash across the increasingly influential and demographically youthful Internet like a lightning bolt.
If she had been allowed to finish her comment, it would have merely been quoted and perhaps inspired some blog posts from conservative bloggers who had some extra time on their hands and had already done their other more important posts.
But by censoring her, her full statement will now get a LOT more publicity, the clip will be played and whoever censored her (Fox or some producer who apparently feared The Weekly Standard would not watch futurre telecasts) will come out of it looking silly, politically dumb and in the end ineffectual.
And Field? She’ll get to do some talk shows.
But, Sally, beware of that invitation from Bill O’Reilly…
This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 8:38 am and is filed under Moktada al-Sadr, TV Shows, Celebrities, Iraq, Television, War, Entertainment. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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