NBC Apologizes For Jane Fonda Saying "C**t" On "Today"

UPDATE 4:40 PM EASTERN: "Vagina Monologues" playwright Eve Ensler spoke to "Access Hollywood" and expressed her disappointment that NBC censored Fonda saying "cunt" during the west coast broadcast of this morning's show.

"Let me just say something about that word," she said. "The whole point of the play is to reclaim that word, and to make that word beautiful, and to make that word powerful, and not denigrating, and not ugly."

ORIGINAL POST: NEW YORK — NBC News is apologizing again _ this time for Jane Fonda. The 70-year-old actress used a vulgar slang term on the "Today" show Thursday while talking about the play "The Vagina Monologues." Fonda is appearing in a 10th-anniversary performance and was on "Today" with author Eve Ensler.

Fonda told co-host Meredith Vieira that she was asked to perform a monologue with a slang term for vagina as the title — and Fonda used the term itself on the air in explaining why she said "no."

"I said, `I don't think so, I've got enough problems,'" Fonda said.

About 10 minutes later, Vieira told viewers that Fonda had used a word from the play that normally isn't used on television.

"It was a slip and obviously she apologizes and so do we," Vieira said. "We would do nothing to offend the audience, so please accept that apology."

"Today" moved quickly to silence the word and cover up Fonda's face with a still photo when the show was aired in the Midwest, Mountain and West Coast feeds.

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It's been a month's worth of apologies for NBC News, owned by General Electric Co. MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews said he was sorry for suggesting that the reason Hillary Clinton was a presidential candidate was because of her husband's infidelities. MSNBC correspondent David Shuster was suspended for two weeks for saying the Clintons had "pimped out" daughter Chelsea for presidential campaigning.

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Watch the clip:

Watch Meredith's apology:

Comments

[booker52]

Oh please, it's a body part!!!! Again with saying they are sorry!!!! Like we all haven't heard the word or even said it.

[abarefootboy]

I wish they could censor " collateral damage " ... or " signing statement " ... or " harsh interogation technique ".

[eugenegerard]

So What? We hear the word DICK every time the Vice-President is mentioned. No one apologizes for that piece of human waste.

[pizzmoe]

I've never been so outraged in my life! How dare she!
Sheeeesh! This is controversial?

[IsThatLatin]

So, they have her come on and talk about The Vagina Monologues, and then they get all uptight when she says "cunt," which is kind of the point of the VM--to be able to refer to our body parts in whatever terms we choose to, without being made to feel vulgar or ashamed. They have her on, she says "cunt," and they feel that warrants an apology (thus attempting to make her feel vulgar and ashamed). Brilliant.

Folks, it's not just a matter of political correctness, or morality, etc, etc. It's about women being made to feel wrong, unnatural, and ashamed about their bodies. That's the point. This "apology" illustrates it.

[tcthom277]

If only Falwell were alive to help us connect Jane's wanton, reckless speech to the inevitable tragedy of global proportions this will provoke from his Almighty.

[tcthom277]

I suppose it is all about context - if Jane had chugged some beers, shot Meredith in the head and THEN called her a c*nt - the Secret Service would've issued a vague press release 24 hours after the event with no comment and or apology necessary.
As it happened, Jane was just talking about a play (in which no one who disagrees with her P.O.V. will be drafted, killed, maimed, sent to Iraq, or even forced to watch, so far as I can tell.)

[watchingthings]

Naughty, naughty, naughty Jane. Someone should tell her that it's ok to say those things in public if you're someone like President Shrub, but the general public has No right to abuse the public airwaves in that way.

[scitilopnacirema]

I take more offense to Meredith's comment of
"We would do nothing to offend the audience". Sometimes an audience needs to be offended. As an American I am often aggravated by the fact that we are all treated like 2nd grade school kids. The media's unwillingness to offend its audience is one of the key factors that has created many of the current problems in this country today.

[Lisette]

That Monologue thing is completely stupid!
And you can not make tha c word nice or acceptable and why do they want to. Ah those crazy Gloria Steinem feminists!

[tcthom277]

How many depictions of rape and other graphic violence against women can you watch on any given TV network? When Jane says the name of the scene she performs in a play about helping women overcome shame about their bodies - one of those TV networks MUST apologize. For what?

How many of those who are offended by hearing the "word" are equally outraged by the systematic sexual violence against women in Darfur? What's the message if the words used to describe a woman's body can't even be spoken? I'm deafened by the sound of hypocrisy.

[BarnE]

Jane, Jane, Jane. Are you really this needy?

[curly2]

If the Today show is going to air a segment about a play that focuses on the vagina (with one of the monologues in the play called The Little Coochie Snorcher that Could) then maybe they shouldn't be too surprised when a slang term for the vagina is used during the segment.

The Today Show should stop trying to be edgy and stick to stories about holiday weight loss secrets and infertility treatments. Then they wouldn't get in these situations.

[NotWaldo]

How about OYSTER, is that O.K. ?

[HeadScratcher]

Wasn't that many years ago you wouldn't hear the word vagina on a talk show - perhaps only a straight medical show.

This stage presentation referred to seems to have found a great following nationally...apparently, the use of that word hasn't offended theater-goers to the extent it affected ticket sales.