NBC apologises for Jane Fonda's offensive word

Reuters ^ | 2/15/08

[Mr. Brightside]

NBC apologises for Jane Fonda's offensive word

Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:38am GMT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Television network NBC apologized for itself and actress Jane Fonda on Thursday after she used an offensive word on the "Today Show."

NBC called it "a slip" and said they did not mean to offend audiences.

Fonda was on the program on Thursday with playwright Eve Ensler to discuss Ensler's award-winning work, "The Vagina Monologues," in which women talk about their sexuality using frank language about their bodies and references to genitalia.

"Vagina Monologues" has spawned a movement called V-Day that aims to stop violence against women, and it is celebrating its 10th anniversary on Thursday.

Over the years, celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Salma Hayek, Sally Field, Glenn Close and Fonda have become involved in V-Day. On the "Today Show," Fonda explained how she first heard of "Vagina Monologues."

"I was asked to do a monologue called 'C***,' and I said, 'I don't think so. I've got enough problems," Fonda said. "Then I came to New York to see Eve and it changed my life."

The "Today Show" airs live on the U.S. East Coast, and the word was not muted or bleeped. Moments later program host Meredith Vieira apologized to audiences.

"Jane Fonda inadvertently said a word from the play that you don't say 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."

U.S. broadcast standards and practices bar the use of the word uttered by Fonda.

[robomatik]

jane fondas parents need to apologize for her existence.

[OPS4]

No morals ever existed in Jane Fonda, One sick puppy.

[davisfh]

“Slip” my hind leg. She said exactly what she intended to say.

[gibsosa]

PIG

[rlmorel]

Hmmmm...

Jane...takes one to know one.

That is one person I would have no problem pouring a bottle of whiskey on her grave after it passed through my kidneys.

[elizabetty]

NBC needs to open an apology department. They have issued a lot lately but not nearly the number they owe the viewing public.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Viera’s apology was even funnier.

[the invisib1e hand]

whatever jane fonda is or isn't, rueters and nbc are giving her a platform. she's a pawn. they're the evil machinery.

so,the vage monologues are going mainstream, eh? Wow, how we've "evolved" right down the drain.

[wastedyears]

You want offensive...

[coconutt2000]

T’was a “verbal malfunction” that directly derived from Jane Fonda’s “mental malfunction.”

Just fine Jane Fonda and get on with life.

[Syncro]

When you hear a word directed at you over and over again, it will inevitably slip our when you talk.

[Mr. Brightside]

This is one instance where I support Jane Fonda.

Maybe her stupid remark will cost NBC millions in fines.

How much did CBS pay for Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction?

[ClearCase_guy]

This seems like someone saying, “My wife told me to call you a $%#@! but I told her I’d never do such a thing, I have enough problems.”

[gibsosa]

Doubt it. We are talking a loser lib....

[Laptop_Ron]

Doesn’t offend me. What offends me is that she has not been tried and executed for treason yet. It’s been about 40 years, hasn’t it?

That’s a Trial Of The Century that I’ll watch.

[mad_as_he$$]

Get in line FRiend. There are about 10 of us here on FR waiting for that day. Rumor is the family will have her cremated so we cannot fulfill out destiny.

[SC Swamp Fox]

NBC should call all 6 people that saw it and apologize.

[RichInOC]

I think that might actually be the correct technical term for Jane’s class of woman.

[rockrr]

I’m surprised that Eve didn’t say, “I know you are, but what am I?”

[jpf]

And who wouldn’t want to start their day explaining to their 6 year old what that word meant?

No, really, we’re sorry, get over it already.

How much does that guy working the ten second delay get paid? I think I want his job, of course only about half the show would make it out over the air...

[mad_as_he$$]

Time to complain to the FCC. The libs do it daily. We need to take full advantage of our outrage over this.

[July 4th]

Apparently, that’s still one of the words from George Carlin’s monologue that can’t be used on TV.

[stevem]

"We would do nothing to offend the audience, so please accept that apology."

Huh? Since when?

[rlmorel]

"...NBC should call all 6 people that saw it and apologize..."

[jdm]

CNUT

[pandoraou812]

NBC called it "a slip" and said they did not mean to offend audiences.

To have Hanoi Jane on TV is offensive IMHO. Why wasn't she with the Code Pinkies?

[hole_n_one]

Someone tuning in at just the right moment might have gotten the impression that the topic of discussion was the Clinton campaign.

[RDTF]

oh Geez not her again

[Petronski]

Is this the word that sounds especially blunt?

[Mariner]

Jane has been a disgrace to her entire family...those before and after her...ever since she came of age.

[RDTF]

#11 here

[rlmorel]

[Chode]

fonda IS what she said...

[TigersEye]

Jane Fonda is dead. She was hung by the neck for treason decades ago.

[Richard Kimball]

"Then I came to New York to see Eve and it changed my life."

She has got to be the most faddish shallow person in the world. Everything changes her life. The anti-war movement. Exercise. The V monologs. She's like a goose. She wakes up in a new world every day.

[Mr. Brightside]

Yeah, that cnut is nucking futs.

[Mr. Brightside]

She has got to be the most faddish shallow person in the world. Everything changes her life. The anti-war movement. Exercise. The V monologs.

Plus she became a "Christian." Remember that one?

[bruinbirdman]

"We would do nothing to offend the audience, so please accept that apology."

Nothing, that is, except devote an entire discussion, in public, to the profane subject of this supposed artistic theatrical expression.

yitbos

[pandoraou812]

No she is not, but she sure should have been.

[roses of sharon]

Telling how a word like that would come so easily to her mind, and off her lips.

[dighton]

Any resemblance between this Robert Conquest limerick and the topic at hand is purely coincidental.

One morning old Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
Was wanting a trip in a punt;
But the puntmen had struck,
So he shouted ‘Good luck!
—Your wage is a social affront!’

[Secret Agent Man]

First, this is definitely the pot calling the kettle black.

Second, the only headline I want to see about this is: “FCC smacks NBC with Whopping Fine for broadcasting CF-Word”.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Apparently, that’s still one of the words from George Carlin’s monologue that can’t be used on TV.

If you like Carlin, rent "Carlin at Carnegie".

The list of the original Dirty Seven has been expanded. He reads it at the end of the show and it goes on for 5-10 minutes. You'll laugh your @$$ off.

[Enterprise]

First - NBC needs to apologize for having her on at all.

Second - NBC needs to apologize for having the other hags on.

[Tucker39]

It has been my humble opinion for a long time, only reinforced by what I heard on Michael Savage this evening, that many of these sick, twisted commie libs have such filthy mouths that they can’t control themselves......and since they are members of the elite, they feel they shouldn’t have to.

And to carry the thought a step farther; I think the reason the leftist commie libs had such a huge orgasm over the Anita Hill v. Clarence Thomas broohaha was because it gave them a seemingly carte-blanche to talk dirty on TV, with references to pubic hairs on Coke cans and Long Dong Silver, etc., etc. ad nauseum!

Whattabunchaperverts!!!

[hosepipe]

“I would think that if you understood what Communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees, that we would someday become communists.” —Jane “Hanoi” Fonda, Michigan State University, 1970

[informavoracious]

They offend the audience daily with the drivel they broadcast.

[BIGLOOK]

fonda IS what she said...

A Vasser graduate.

[JayNorth]

“I would think that if you understood what Communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees, that we would someday become communists.” —Jane “Hanoi” Fonda, Michigan State University, 1970

That's what I thought the "c" word they were talking about all day was...Communist.