Court Overturns Fine Of CBS Over Janet Jackson

Source: NY Times

A U.S. appeals court on Monday overturned a decision to fine CBS Corp television stations $550,000 for airing a brief breast flash by pop singer Janet Jackson during the 2004 Super Bowl broadcast.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said the U.S. Federal Communications Commission "arbitrarily and capriciously departed from its prior policy" that exempted fleeting broadcast material from actionable indecency violations.

Jackson's right breast was exposed to almost 90 million TV viewers for a fraction of a second during the live 2004 Super Bowl football halftime show in what fellow pop singer Justin Timberlake later called a "wardrobe malfunction." Timberlake ripped off part of Jackson's bustier exposing Jackson's breast during the show. Despite the brevity, lawmakers and regulators were outraged and vowed a crackdown on broadcast indecency.

U.S. television and radio broadcasters are barred from airing obscene material and are limited from broadcasting indecent materials between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when children are likely to be watching. The restrictions do not apply to cable or satellite services.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/arts/entertainment-cbs-fcc.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

again. How dare they go unpunished for what was clearly an accident?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyIn6eay9Mw

I'm delighted to say she lost her bid for Domenici's (R-fossil) Senate seat.

I'm terrified she'll run for governor and undo all the good Richardson has done.

Go figure!

would allow any kind of "breasts" to be seen in public, covered or uncovered. I say we form a committee to go house to house to grab every . . . er . . . to snatch . . . um . . . to confiscate every breast in America!! so that no one ever has to see one again!! Why do boobs -- breasts I mean, breasts, hate America?? Indecent and obscene things that they are. They are weapons of mass distraction.


But seriously, what a puritanical society we live in. I've been on European and Caribbean beaches where there were topless women, naked women, naked men walking around in front of anybody -- even kids. I've seen posters of topless women in subways in France. Why do we need to prosecute a tiny accidental exposure?


I'm glad the fines were dropped, but what a pointless, silly waste of time and money.

looking back, what a fire storm over nothing. Most of America missed it but digital freeze frame brought home no one saw.

more bare breasts!

Well, look who landed on Plymouth Rock? It wasn't the Hindus, y'know.