BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

There were no wardrobe malfunctions during Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show, but there was an issue involving a singer’s use of fingers.

The Parents Television Council said NBC fumbled and called the NFL “liars” when Maya Arulpragasam, or M.I.A., flipped off a nationwide audience, and the gesture was not blurred by NBC.

“It is unfortunate that a spectacular sporting event was overshadowed once again by broadcasting the selfish acts of a desperate performer,” said the organization’s president Tim Winter, according to EW.com. "Last week the NFL formally told the PTC that the halftime show would be ‘appropriate.’ Most families would agree that the middle finger aimed directly at them is not appropriate.”

Both NBC and the NFL apologized for the incident. NBC spokesman Christopher McCloskey said, according to Time, “It was a spontaneous gesture that our delay system caught late.” And NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said, “The obscene gesture in the performance was completely inappropriate, and we apologize to our fans.”

According to Yahoo.com, M.I.A. does a gunshot motion with her fingers in the video for Madonna’s new song, "Give Me All Your Luvin'." Along with M.I.A., Madonna was accompanied by LMFAO, Nicki Minaj, and Cee Lo Green.

The PTC heavily criticized the wardrobe malfunction of Janet Jackson at the 2004 Super Bowl show, and said the NFL and NBC enabled the latest gesture to happen. The network said their monitoring system tried to blur the middle finger, but were too late by a fraction of a second.