M.I.A. flips bird at Superbowl; NBC, NFL flip out, point index fingers at each other

An uplifted middle finger at 8:03 by M.I.A. during Madonna's Superbowl halftime show last night has caused finger-pointing by the NFL at NBC.
     Late Sunday night, both NBC and the National Football League issued dueling statements. NBC called it a "spontaneous gesture." The NFL called it a "failure in NBC's delay system."
     More he said / she said:

NBC: "Inappropriate"
NFL: "Obscene"
NBC: "The NFL hired the talent and produced the halftime show"

     The National Football League, which hides the consequences of violence in its product by snipping footage of players who are seriously injured during its games, also imposes a North Korea-like curtain around sexual innuendo, and not just because of government regulations imposed on telecasts.
     In 2005, the NFL refused to allow director Ang Lee use footage of an NFL game on a television set in the background of family Thanksgiving Day dinner scene in Brokeback Mountain (CFL footage was used instead.)