A Fox station is courting controversy once again, this time by blurring the breasts of a Picasso masterpiece.
Fox 5 News, New York City's local Fox affiliate, ran a TV segment on the record-setting auction price for Pablo Picasso's "Les Femmes d'Alger" -- known as "version O" to distinguish it from the 14 previous paintings Picasso made with this name -- and decided to spare its viewers possible offense by censoring the subject's bosom. The move caused quite a bit of outrage.
The larger Fox News channel, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, is no stranger to controversy. It has been embroiled in a spat with the Obama administration for years, has been accused of photo manipulation and once reported that everyone in Birmingham, UK, is a Muslim.
Art historian Aruna D'Souza tweeted out a screenshot, which she confirmed to Mashable she obtained from her friend Stephanie Herdrich who was watching the broadcast.
Glad @FoxNews is protecting its audience from Picasso's smutty mind. Wouldn't want to scare the children. pic.twitter.com/Mbv2C8unPs— Aruna D'Souza (@arunadsouza) May 12, 2015
Following her tweet, New York art critic Jerry Saltz made clear his disgust of Fox News.
How sexually sick are conservatives & Fox News? They blurred parts of the Picasso painting. #SickMinds pic.twitter.com/5PGw5h5iBs— Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) May 13, 2015
People on Twitter joined in, making it known they stand for the free nipple.
Love how @FOXnews blurred the nipples of the $179 million 'Women of Algiers' by Picasso... how pathetic it is. pic.twitter.com/eg4Z1HaqgS— Gonzalo W. Bénard (@GBenard) May 12, 2015
“@korygrow: Apparently cubist breasts are too hot for @MyFoxNY. They blurred #Picasso! pic.twitter.com/tZwCZoXy7W” lol— Rita Koivunen (@RitaKoivunen) May 12, 2015
#Foxnews blurred parts of #Picasso painting announcing #auction #record: #FreeTheNipple #NoHope #porno #poverinoi #nocomment A photo posted by claudiascarsella (@claudiascarsella) on May 13, 2015 at 3:42pm PDT
UPDATE, 4 p.m. ET: The Fox 5 morning crew acknowledged their station's mistake on Thursday. "We get it! It was ridiculous."
They also posted the painting "in all its glory" to their Facebook page, saying the censorship "wasn't the best move."
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));We get it. A blurred out version of Pablo Picasso's masterpiece-- The Women of Algiers (Version 0)-- wasn't the best move.Here is the art work in all its glory: http://tinyurl.com/npps9ezPosted by FOX 5 / MyFoxNY.com on Thursday, May 14, 2015
CORRECTION: This headline has been updated to reflect that the station was a local Fox affiliate.