MTV goes right back to its bad sex habits

By RICHARD HUFF DAILY NEWS TV EDITOR

Just a few weeks after promising to clean up its act during daytime hours because of Janet Jackson's Super Bowl bra-ha-ha, MTV is baring all again.
Britney Spears' graphic sex romp "Toxic" is back in heavy rotation around the clock.

So are controversial videos from Blink 182 (although edited a bit) and Maroon 5.

MTV officials, under heavy criticism for producing the R-rated Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 1, had vowed afterward to do the "responsible" thing and pull such explicit music videos from daytime viewing.

Instead, the music channel said it would air them only late at night - when fewer young people and families would be watching.

So what happened?

An MTV spokeswoman explained the network's backflip this way:

"We decided to take a temperature check, we listened to the audience, we wanted to make sure we still felt good about the images on MTV."

Now that some of the initial shock of the Jackson nip slip is over, she said: "The audience ... decided they wanted to see these artists."

"Toxic" has been on again at all hours for about 10 days, showing voluptuous Britney writhing on the floor, wearing a mesh outfit, and carrying on with all sorts of guys.

Blink 182's "I Miss You" was replaced by a European version of the video, without the offending material. MTV said it never asked for the alternate version, but it was supplied by the record company after "I Miss You" was limited to late-night showings.

Another controversial video, "Splash Waterfalls" by Ludacris, is still banished to the hours between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

MTV's initial move to take the sexually explicit videos off the air during the day came amid the furor over the Super Bowl halftime show.

The network's leaders - as well as Mel Karmazin, president of parent company CBS Viacom - received a torrent of criticism over Jackson's breast-baring dirty dance with Justin Timberlake.

Karmazin vowed to clean up the airwaves, and NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue pointed the finger of blame at MTV.

Spears' "Toxic" video had originally started airing on MTV Jan. 15. Even though it was off the daytime hours for a short time after the Super Bowl, it remained a popular video on the network's highlight show "Total Request Live."

Bravo MTV! Thanks for taking a stand...for a month or two until they could find another scapegoat (Howard Stern) to take the blame!

:yousuck:

I agree MTV showed no couage and backbone, but in the end they did the right thing.

typical :rolleyes:

They just wanted a bit of publicity themselves.

Has anyone seen the Maroon 5 video on MTV lately? They've got animated flower petals flowing through the screen during all the "bad parts." Kinda creeps me out--it's weird looking. Thank goodness the video is normal on VH1.

Well, maybe that's old news--I see this thread is a few weeks old. Well I never did see a post about the video, so hopefully no one minds old news.

MTV were being hypocrites, the same channel that made stars out of Madonna, Britney, Janet, etc... were suddenly trying to go moral? ha ha ha.

I think people are going way too extreme. How funny that the same people criticizing Janet are the same people who thought J. Lo was so sexy in the 2000 Grammys and were all crazy about Britney at the VMA's with the skin-tight dress.

Plus, MTV barely plays videos anymore, what would be the point of relogating a video to late night anyways, that's about the only time they show videos as is

I think mtv's videos that way r good. who gives if they have content like that.