“If mothers ruled the world, there would be no god-damned wars in the first place.”

Fox's ham-handed editing of Sally Field's speech did the opposite of silencing her.

We suddenly want to hear what they cut, why they cut it and why they were so afraid.

Jennifer Pozner of Wimn's Voices:

But the telecast took a disappointing turn when Sally Field won for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as the matriarch of “Brothers and Sisters.” Field is an exceptional actress and I was glad to see her honored; the disappointment came during her acceptance speech. Seems Emmy voters really really like Sally Field (sorry for that so-old reference, I couldn’t help it) — but Fox censors, not so much. All was well as she started her heartfelt (though clearly rehearsed) comments:

“How can that be, these wonderful actors?… [This award] belongs to the mother of the show, the real mother of the show, Sarah Kaplan. It belongs to our incredible, eclectic, ingenious writers, all of them are endlessly energetic and supportive crew, these actors that I get to stand across from, Rachel Griffiths and Calista Flockhart, to my family that I would be nothing without them. But at the heart of Nora Walker she is a mother. So surely this belongs to all the mothers of the world. May they be seen, may their work be valued and raised. And to especially to the mothers who stand with an open heart and wait. Wait for their children to come home from danger, from harm’s way, and from war.”

As the audience erupted in applause, she eyeballed the quickly-ticking Emmy clock and screamed, “Hurry up! Quiet! I have to finish talking!” After an awkward moment or two of stammering as she tried to regain her derailed train of thought (”And… and to war… oh God, I forgot what I was gonna say! Oh, ah.. to war!”) , she quickly finished her acceptance speech but was comepletely cut off by the network:

“I am proud, I am proud to be one of those women. And let’s face it. If mothers ruled the world, there would be no — ”

At this point, home viewers were left to wonder, Um… no what? Unlike most network censors of live telecasts, which tend to use their three or five second delay option to simply bleep the stray “Holy sh*T” or F-bomb from over-exuberant celebs, Fox cut away from Field entirely, leaving about six seconds of dead air on screen, finally cutting back to her “Thank you” as she left the stage.

What Field actually said was, “If mothers ruled the world, there would be no god-damned wars in the first place.” (Not all that far-fetched, considering that Mother’s Day was first established as a gathering of mothers rising up against the devastation of war on their families.) But apparently, Fox considers the idea that mothers oppose war is just too obscene for America’s virgin ears.

Not that I’m surprised that Fox would consider a feminist political statement not-ready-for-primetime, but if anyone tries to tell me that they cut away for six seconds because she said “God-damn” — I just don’t buy it. If that was the case, those two words would have been bleeped, and the rest of her sentence would have aired uncut. But, check it out and decide for yourself:

Update 9/20: If Fox censored Fields for saying 'goddamn' then what is this?