Fox Censors Sally Field's Anti-War-Moms Speech, and Other Emmy Musings

Ryan Secreast's tediousness aside, Sunday was a good night for strong, funny, talented character actresses at the 59th Emmy Awards. The fantastic America Ferrera scored Best Actress for her beautiful-from-the-inside-out, Latinas-rule title role on Ugly Betty, Tina Fey's 30 Rock took home Best Comedy (hopefully a ratings boost will follow, so that next time Fey wins she'll thank more than their "dozens and dozens of viewers"), and Elaine Stritch was wacky and witty when she nabbed Best Guest Actress on a Comedy Series (I didn't jot down what she said in her acceptance speech, but it was similar -- though less bleeperific -- to her hilarious exclamation at last week's Creative Arts Emmys, a la New York magazine: "Un-fucking-believable... I'm a recovering alcoholic, a riddled diabetic, and I've got laryngitis ... but I just won an Emmy!")

But the telecast took a disappointing turn when Sally Field won for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as the matriarch of Brothers and Sisters. Field is an exceptional actress and I was glad to see her honored; the disappointment came during her acceptance speech. Seems Emmy voters really, really like Sally Field (sorry for that so-old reference, I couldn't help it) -- but Foxcensors, not so much. All was well as she started her heartfelt (though clearly rehearsed) comments:

"How can that be, these wonderful actors?... [This award] belongs to the mother of the show, the real mother of the show, Sarah Kaplan. It belongs to our incredible, eclectic, ingenious writers, all of them are endlessly energetic and supportive crew, these actors that I get to stand across from, Rachel Griffiths and Calista Flockhart, to my family that I would be nothing without them. But at the heart of Nora Walker she is a mother. So surely this belongs to all the mothers of the world. May they be seen, may their work be valued and raised. And to 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."

As the audience erupted in applause, she eyeballed the quickly-ticking Emmy clock and screamed, "Hurry up! Quiet! I have to finish talking!" After an awkward moment or two of stammering as she tried to regain her derailed train of thought ("And... and to war... oh God, I forgot what I was gonna say! Oh, ah.. to war!") , she quickly finished her acceptance speech but was comepletely cut off by the network:

"I am proud, I am proud to be one of those women. And let's face it. If mothers ruled the world, there would be no -- "

At this point, home viewers were left to wonder, Um... no what? Unlike most network censors of live telecasts, which tend to use their three or five second delay option to simply bleep the stray "Holy sh*T" or F-bomb from over-exuberant celebs, Fox cut away from Field entirely, leaving about six seconds of dead air on screen, finally cutting back to her "Thank you" as she left the stage. What Field actually said was, "If mothers ruled the world, there would be no god-damned wars in the first place." (Not all that far-fetched, considering that Mother's Day was first established as a gathering of mothers rising up against the devastation of war on their families.) But apparently, Fox considers the idea that mothers oppose war is just too obscene for America's virgin ears. Not that I'm surprised that Fox would consider a feminist political statement not-ready-for-primetime, but if anyone tries to tell me that they cut away for six seconds because she said "God-damn" -- I just don't buy it. If that was the case, those two words would have been bleeped, and the rest of her sentence would have aired uncut. (Not to mention that Canadian viewers magically heard the whole speech uncut... But, check it out and decide for yourself:

[***See update below for follow-up comments from Sally Field on her response to censorship.]

In other unrelated Emmymusings:

-- I thought Queen Latifah was an odd choice of star to introduce the 30-year nod to the groundbreaking miniseries Roots; I love me some Queen, but it might have been more impactful if the Academy had asked someone with more seasoned acting chops, or perhaps one of the stars of Roots. Regardless, Emmy scored a few points for honoring the miniseries that brought America's brutal history of slavery to the mainstream small screen.

-- Loved how stunned and happy 30 Rock's Jack McBrayer (one of the most brilliant improv comics in the country -- a veteran of Chicago's best improv troupes, Second City and Baby Wants Candy, and New York's Upright Citizens Brigade Theater) seemed on the Emmy stage, with his perpetual corn-fed, "Really? Me? Here?" look on his face...

-- Gotta love Jon Stewart (even if he and Stephen Colbert were robbed -- robbed, I say!! -- by Tony Bennett). Backstage in the press room (via a clip from E!), the Daily Show host was asked, "So you nab the first phone interview with O.J. in jail. What would you ask him?... so like Paris did with Barbara. You get the first jail interview. What would you ask him?" To which Stewart retorts, "Is this how it goes down, Capone? You killed two people and they get you for kicking in a door in Vegas? Is that how it goes? Wow. What a drag. What a shame. What a shame."

To post your feedback or to hear more Emmy musings -- including thoughts on red carpet treatment of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, swipes at Seacrest, and more on America Ferrera, Elaine Stritch, Kathy Griffin -- and for Sally Field's follow-up comments in reaction to the censorship of her speech, continue reading here.


This post originally appeared at WIMN's Voices: A Group Blog on Women and the Media , a project of Women In Media & News, the national women's media analysis, education and advocacy group. To bring Jennifer L. Pozner to speak to your campus or community group, or to send her blog tips, email info [at] wimnonline [dot] org. To subscribe to WIMN's free media alert list, see the Action Center at http://www.wimnonline.org/action/.

Comments

[mickeye]

RBG.

That ad that latifa does brings in a ton of revenue. So what is Queen Latifa supposed to do ?
Buy everyone life insurance with her income ?

[RealBlackGirl]

Having Queen Latifah speak to the legacy of Roots was more than appropriate. First, she was honoring the elders that came before her and made it possible for her to have the transformational and Oscar nominated career she currently enjoys. Second, with the limited amount of African Americans on television programs (although it is improving) who else could they have called?

[yellowdogSC]

RBG,

The same Queen Latifah who does Wal-Mart ads?

I'll bet they pay her as much for a single EASY days work as it would cost to pay employee health insurance for a month nationwide.

What do you think, RBG? Does that honor the elders? Or ANY African Americans?

(I DON'T mean to be short with you. But whenever I see one of those ads, I think about the hardship it conveys to so many innocent, hard workers with sick children.)

Thank you.

[Guitarsandmore]

This is where the censorship laws do not make any sense at all. You can show Americans being killed and their lifeless dead bodies dragged through the streets but you can’t say God Damned on TV.

Is not war more obscene than any four letter word you can cry out?

[yellowdogSC]

Gam,

And the MOST obscene of ALL?:

DID YOU KNOW that America’s WOUNDED are bring brought in the back door AT NIGHT, TOO?
http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2005/03/08/night_flights/index.html

Wounded, dying, suffering, alone, scared, but NOT WORTHY OF SEEING THE DAYLIGHT OF HOME.

Sorry about the caps. I get angry sometimes.

Thanks.

[rodriguezlsr]

In the hopes that Sally might read this, and also for Ms. Pozner's benefit, let's set the record straight on this mothers and war thing. Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meir were all mothers. Gandhi started India's nuclear program, Meir successfully defeated Syria in the Yom Kippur War and Thatcher was known as "the Iron Lady" for a reason. And then there's Mariam Farahat, elected to the Palestinian Parliament. After sending three of her six sons on suicide missions, she said her only regret was that she didn't have 100 more sons to send. Maybe as women, we need to put down Vogue and pick up some books.

[yellowdogSC]

rod,

No, statistically, she's correct.

[flatus]

Someone quickly pointed out that Hillary voted for the war and is a mother, too.

So much for that theory.

[snaggster]

I don't have much good to say about Fox or the Emmys, but they didn't censor her anti-war remarks. They prudishly censored her GD. Even so, I was confident that I had gotten her message. Upon seeing the uncensored version, I'm sure that very little was lost. If she had left out the stammering and GD, I believe everyone would have heard the entire thing.

[yellowdogSC]

snag,

They did...and they didn't. You are correct.

Whatever their intent, 100 times as many people have heard her comment now.

We don't know if Fox censored "WAR", but we KNOW they would have, though perhaps not by itself.

The "GD" gave them what they thought was an opportunity.

Turned out they gave anti-war America a HUGE opportunity.

Thank you, snag.

[snaggster]

I'm pretty sure she said WAR several times before she said GD. Pretty sure.

[roniweb]

Gotta love FOX.

I love Sally Field. Haven't seen the new show, but love her.