Brent Musberger “scandel”? What are we thinking?

If you watched the recent college football national title game (or just read headlines), you know that  during the game, Brent Musburger praised the beauty of the girlfriend of the Alabama quarterback when the camera focused on her.  From an article by Dean Obeidallah at http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/09/opinion/obeidallah-musburger-comments/index.html:

Here’s what he said when the cameras focused on Webb during the broadcast: “…you see that lovely lady there? She does go to Auburn, I’ll admit that, but she’s also Miss Alabama, and that’s A.J. McCarron’s girlfriend. Wow, I’m telling ya, you quarterbacks, you get all the good-looking women. What a beautiful woman! Whoa! So if you’re a youngster in Alabama, start getting the football out and throw it around the backyard with pops.”

ESPN felt compelled to apologize for this.  I have to ask, “What were they thinking?”  What’s going on when on New Years Eve a woman can fake a sex act on television and no apology is given or expected  (and even applauded) but a man expresses admiration for the beauty of a woman and his network apologizes?  Shows like “Two and a Half Men” show and say all kinds of demeaning things about women and sex and they’re considered “funny.”  Someone like Hugh Hefner is presented as someone to be emulated or envied.  A new show on Showtime is called “Californication.”  If Musburger had said she was hot, leered, made an obscene comment/joke/gesture, commented on her breasts or something similar, fine; everyone should apologize.  But he didn’t.  Quite the opposite.   In a culture like ours, what he said is like an old-fashioned declaration of admiration, something quaint, with a whiff of nostalgia.  How can it possibly be something for which to apologize?

The camera operators for ESPN and other networks covering sports routinely show cheerleaders in their skimpy outfits and scan the crowd, dwelling on good-looking women.  Why is that fine and this not?  Would it have been better if Brett would have commented on how great A.J. McCarron or another player looked in his tight pants?

This woman is Miss Alabama, which means that she has a certain opinion of her beauty, and I don’t mean that in a negative way,  and has put that beauty (and undoubtedly a lot more of her body than was seen here) in the public eye.  She herself, her parents and her boyfriend aren’t offended and frankly, anyone who is, in my opinion, has a problem.  If that’s the worst thing a man ever said about a woman, our country would be paradise for woman.

We live in a country that emasculates and puts down men at every turn, puts all sorts of obscenities and off-color jokes and remarks on television and in the movies (and laughs at them), treats women like sex-objects, produces and promotes video games that demean and mistreat not only women but people of all sorts, and then has the gall to object to a compliment like this.  If someone said this about me on television or elsewhere, I’d be flattered, not offended.

It makes me wonder where in the world we’re going and what we could possibly be thinking.