But the limit is like a tide that is always receding, moving so far from shore that it now is barely discernible. Officials at CBS have been falling all over themselves to apologize ever since, as has MTV, which produced the show. But there is a linear and easily documented progression from Jack Paar's days to today, and little reason to believe the direction will change.

Performers have learned that the best way to get attention is to push the limit. Audiences, meanwhile, are beginning to forget exactly why it is we have limits in the first place.

Amid the endless chatter on the Internet last week was a post from one man who wondered what the big deal was. "What's the difference between a man's bare chest and a woman's?"

Pity FCC Chairman Michael Powell, who has to try to rein all of this back in after years of neglect. He has vowed to take action, which could mean fines of up to $27,500 for every station that aired Jackson's exposed breast. That would amount to $550,000 for CBS, which owns and operates 20 stations. In real terms, this would mean, well, a couple of sore wrists.

Perhaps the best Powell can do is try to build a pier that reaches the receding tide for a while. It may be too late to build a retaining wall.

Or is it? The Parents' Television Council released an opinion poll just weeks ago showing how people in Texas, home of the Super Bowl, feel about television these days. When asked about the level of sex they see, 67.6 percent felt it was too much, while 31.7 percent said it was never appropriate for television. Eighty-two percent said they were seeing too much violence, and 64.2 percent thought there was too much profanity.

The tide, in other words, may not be as far out as we think. Perhaps a lot of people are simply resigned to the way things are, and so they don't complain.

In which case, the Super Bowl did us all a favor. It energized what could become a movement to retrench.

We'll never go back to the days when W.C. jokes were out of bounds, but we could at least go back to a time when hedonism wasn't the focus of entertainment, and when networks and the FCC at least cared about public morals.

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Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret Morning News editorial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com