An offended mother on the topic of blowjobs

A few days ago, Marcy Wheeler of Firedoglake accidentally let slip the word "blowjob" on MSNBC during a segment devoted to whether or not the CIA's top-secret hit-squad program should be probed (you know, what with it being overwhelmingly illegal). This has, of course, provoked a little flurry of a scandal amongst those who wish the airwaves to be absolutely pristine and devoid of any passion or emotion – or words that wouldn't offend a 5-year-old.

Here's a video of the whole thing; the "blowjob" incident itself is roughly 3:25 minutes in:

A little transcript of Marcy's full quote:

"And your idea is that after investigating Bill Clinton for a blowjob for, like, five years, we shouldn't investigate the huge, grossly illegal things that were done under the past administration only because they were t— I mean, Alberto Gonzalez was too much in the backpocket of Dick Cheney to do it when he was still in office. That's ridiculous!"

I can't say I don't completely agree with every single thing she said, there.

Notice how her co-anchors frantically try and apologize for her a minute or so later? Even those Marcy was debating with didn't give a shit what she'd said. Seriously, "blowjob" is so far down the list of unacceptable words it's ludicrous to even mention its use.

Now, about the title of this post. One of the better-known reactions to this silly ordeal comes from another Firedoglake blogger named Rayne, who voices her thoughts as a concerned mother – but not for the utterance of the word "blowjob" itself.

Those of you who know me also know I have a couple of kids -- a teenager in high school, and a tweenager about to enter middle school.

Both of my kids have met the infamous blogger who used, you know, THAT word on MSNBC this afternoon. In fact, they were watching the video of the infamous blogger.

Neither batted an eye about the use of THAT word.

And I am so proud of them.

Because even my kids know the real obscenity isn't a euphemism for oral sex, or even that it happened on a cable show in the middle of the afternoon. My kids know that the real obscenities are these:

* Our country went to war based on lies told by elected and appointed officials;

* Their brother and the sons/daughters/brothers/sisters of many other families like ours served for this war, came back damaged or dead, for nothing but lies;

* Their president and vice president lied repeatedly about all manner of things while refusing to accept responsibility for any failures which happened on their watch;

* Their government was either obstructed during investigations into these lies or simply failed to make any effort to investigate these lies;

* Their government spent billions of dollars to make these lies, to support these lies, to pass these lies on, while killing hundreds of thousands of people in other countries, while making plans to kill more on a targeted basis in the form of assassinations;

* Their government tortured people, innocents among them, including children, to further their lies, in violation of fundamental human rights and codified law;

* Their fellow citizens are not better off for all of this, but are far worse off in terms of security, health and finances than before all the lies started;

* The corporate-owned media in their country makes money off ghoulishly beating a tattoo every day about dead entertainers and missing white girls while avoiding the work required of investigative journalism important to real democracy.

Even kids understand when adults are being stupid and unethical, and they know the truth when they see it.

As a mother I'm absolutely offended, but not about the word "blowjob."

I'm deeply offended that the corporate-owned mainstream media can turn a blind eye to the really offensive obscenities, thereby becoming complicit in the criminality -- and they've done this in front of my kids for more than eight years.

What am I supposed to tell these children?

Very well-said, Rayne. A good mother with intelligent children, I see. An increasingly rare thing in this world.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)