Comments on: Iran censors cover Michelle Obama's cleavage

By: quaskx

quaskx — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 05:08:00 +0000

The difference here is that the only freedom being infringed is that of the audience to see Michelle Obama’s cleavage, and of her freedom to show her cleavage to the Iranian audience. In a more conservative and religious country like Iran, that doesn’t hurt her message and might even improve the receptivity of the Iranian audience to it. I somehow doubt Michelle Obama would really mind that. It’s not like she was actually forced to cover up her cleavage, it was just edited out. I think editing out swear words, as TV networks here do, might actually be worse than editing out cleavage, as far as free speech is concerned.

By: MaTTLoughlin

MaTTLoughlin — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:32:00 +0000

Gotta love their obsession with repression.

By: Ray Perkins

Ray Perkins — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:24:00 +0000

The difference between the US and Canadian versions of Trailer Park Boys is amusing… the US one sounds like a smoke detector going off.

By: scav

scav — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:43:00 +0000

I think it’s fucking disgusting. You can still see her naked arms!

Although she does have a right to bare arms, what with being an American.

By: spacedmonkey

spacedmonkey — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 03:48:00 +0000

Having it in for religious assholes doesn’t make you anti-semitic. A whole lot of less religious or non-religious Israelis really hate those people.

By: rocketpjs

rocketpjs — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 01:59:00 +0000

Well, that was a nipple, and as you know the sight of even a single nipple in the middle of a wildly violent sporting event can cause people to get the vapours.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:18:00 +0000

In From Dusk Till Dawn, they used motor-scooter. It really gave the film a Disney vibe.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 23:38:00 +0000

Behold.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 23:36:00 +0000

You really think that censorship can only apply to words? Do you support countries that won’t allow women to go in public without being veiled?

By: quaskx

quaskx — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 23:32:00 +0000

They weren’t censoring or changing what Michelle Obama said, were they?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 23:23:00 +0000

Maybe I could show you respect by changing all your comments to read, “I ♥ Justin Bieber”.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 23:02:00 +0000

Ah, I thought I’d seen some news report years ago about the engravers who took their vow of secrecy very seriously. Maybe it was for some other kind of award.

Still, I imagine a few people must know. Somebody’s gotta write the winner on that card in the envelope.

By: ImmutableMichael

ImmutableMichael — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:59:00 +0000

Damn you! Now I have an image in my mind’s eye of Michelle Obama with her arms outstretched, Superman style, flying over Damavand Mountain.

By: ImmutableMichael

ImmutableMichael — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:52:00 +0000

Honestly, that’s a great big pile of shirt.

By: C W

C W — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:22:00 +0000

It sure is a good thing we live in the good ol’ U S of A where part of an exposed busom on national television has never become a national scandal.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:22:00 +0000

They get the names put on them at the engraving table at the Governor’s Ball. They’re blank when they’re handed out.

But I can’t imagine that Mrs. Obama would have participated without knowing the outcome. There’s no way in hell that she would have participated if Django Unchained had won.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:45:00 +0000

@Navin_Johnson:disqus : Maybe it’s my cultural bias, but I prefer an omission to an outright lie.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:37:00 +0000

If they didn’t like what she was wearing, they should have put a black box over her, not edited her dress.

By: Eric Dobratz

Eric Dobratz — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:35:00 +0000

Sure… “heads”.

By: Jellodyne

Jellodyne — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:20:00 +0000

Michelle Obamas take in Iran’s successful missile test.

By: Petzl

Petzl — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:20:00 +0000

monkey-fighting, monday-to-friday– finally some censors with some imagination. it almost works.

By: Petzl

Petzl — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:16:00 +0000

BARE SHOULDERS– MY MIIIND– IT RETURNS, THE MADNESS– HELP MEEEE

By: Navin_Johnson

Navin_Johnson — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:10:00 +0000

“I took the liberty of bull-stuffing you”

By: Navin_Johnson

Navin_Johnson — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:09:00 +0000

U.S. msm would just leave out the parts that are inconvenient altogether, or push the neoliberal narratives of special interests as if they’re news and not somebody else’s talking points. Hell, you only have to see the way they’ve painted Iran as a nuke crazy aggressor to see that. Pick your poison….

By: Gyrofrog

Gyrofrog — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:31:00 +0000

My co-worker and I used to joke about these:
“You’re gonna look pretty funny tryin to eat corn on the cob with no T-E-E-E-E-E-TH”and”Looks like you’re really up the creek!”

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:25:00 +0000

Sure, but the difference is that in journalism you’re not supposed to hide the fact that you censored something. If a naked person ends up in the news in the U.S. they’ll generally blur or black out the offending bits but they won’t photoshop in some extra clothing.

By: Navin_Johnson

Navin_Johnson — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:20:00 +0000

Reread the op’s comment. He wasn’t talking about news, he was talking about comedy (“sheep finding” for “sheep fucking”), but now that you mention it they don’t do that on the news either. If they’re recounting some kind of dialogue they usually refuse to say the word and say “explicative” instead. This goes for print a lot of the time as well. I wonder what the Iranians (or anybody who’s not a scum) thinks about Newscorp putting lurid bikini photos of Reeva Steenkamp on the front page of its newspapers?

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:16:00 +0000

And covering her up with a black box would be more ethical to you?

From a journalistic perspective, absolutely. Any self-described news agency has a responsibility to present the world as it is, not as it should be according to local standards of decency.

By: quaskx

quaskx — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:09:00 +0000

And covering her up with a black box would be more ethical to you? I can see that it would have the appearance of being a more principled decision, but it clearly does more violence to the First Lady’s appearance. Besides, Iranians aren’t oblivious to the kinds and magnitude of censorship perpetrated by their state, so it’s not obvious that they would’ve been deceived anyway.

Your notion of respect here is question-begging too. Perhaps for them, it is a sign of respect to alter someone’s appearance if the person wasn’t dressed in a manner considered dignified by their cultural norms. I’m just saying they may not have *intended* to disrespect the First Lady, even if it might to appear us that they have done so.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:54:00 +0000

There are always a handful of people in the know. How do you think those little trophies just happen to have the right names engraved on them?