Nutter Thinks TV Viewer Perception of July 4th Concert Profanity Was Overblown
By Mike Dunn
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Mayor Nutter says reports of rampant profanities by performers at this month's "Welcome America" Fourth of July concert were somewhat exaggerated.
WPVI-TV, which broadcast the concert live, frequently cut away from the audio and video during the songs of every performer except Jennifer Hudson.
Mayor Nutter says he later compared the raw concert footage to the tape of the broadcast, and believes that the profanities were less frequent than first thought (see previous story).
Specifically, he says, both The Roots and Ed Sheeran cleaned up their lyrics and never in fact needed to be bleeped.
"I think 6ABC took an abundance of caution," the mayor said today, "not necessarily knowing in the moment that the artist was going to self-adjust (the lyrics)."
And that, Nutter says, led home viewers to believe that profanities were flying.
"If you were watching TV and all of a sudden the screen goes blank or blue with the 6ABC logo, you might think that something bad or outrageous has happened," he said. "You don't know."
But he said it's clear that Nicki Minaj, emcee Marlon Wayans and, to a lesser degree, artists Aloe Blacc and Vicci Martinez did use profanities, in apparent violation of the contract with the city that stipulates that broadcast standards be followed.
When asked what recourse the city has against them, the mayor was vague:
"We will deal with this in a variety of different ways," he said. "On one end, you just don't invite the person back."
But Nutter would not specifically say whether Minaj and Wayans -- the apparent worst offenders -- would ever be invited to appear again.
"Yes, there were some discomforting moments. But those should not in any way mar the overwhelming success of this particular concert," the mayor said.
And Nutter noted that more than one million people were on the Ben Franklin Parkway during the course of the day for the festivities.