M.I.A. Super Bowl: Anger on Twitter is not at the rapper
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M.I.A.’s Super Bowl appearance — and her now infamous ‘flip off’ — got a lot of people mad.
The Parents Television Council denounced the British rapper for what her camp has described as an adrenaline-fueled lapse in judgment. The advocacy group was also mad at the NFL, which it accused of lying when it promised a family-friendly show, and NBC for fumbling by allowing it to air despite a time delay.
For its part, the NFL was sorry, offering an apology to the 110 million viewers for the ‘completely inappropriate, very disappointing’ obscene gesture.
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And NBC was sorry too, although the network pointedly remarked that it was the NFL who hired the talent. NBC officials copped to being ‘late to obscure the inappropriate gesture.’
Fingergate took place during Madonna’s halftime extravaganza, which featured M.I.A. as one of a number of well-known guest performers.
On Twitter, the gesture prompted an uptick in ‘anger’ around the rapper, according to an analysis of sentiment by San Francisco-based Kanjoya. The company uses a computer algorithm to assess emotion in Tweets.
‘But the anger seems to be pointed toward people who think the incident is a big deal as opposed to people being angry at M.I.A.,’ said M.T. Robertson.
Among the comments:
‘how many children went hungry & how many soldiers were killed while everyone was busy being offended by M.I.A.’s middle finger? #values’
‘I don’t know any INTELLIGENT person who actually cares about#MIA’s #middlefinger.... #superbowl #halftime #publicitystunt #zzzz’
‘How the MIA middlefinger tops everything @ the #SuperBowlblows my mind.Hello?! Madonna had an amazingly successful &entertaining comeback!’
Of course, Kanjoya also found some support for M.I.A., including praise for her being ‘gangster for putting up her middle finger’ at the Super Bowl. The complete contents of that particular tweet, however, have to be obscured for broadcast.
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