From the Associated Press:A federal appeals court on Monday threw out a $550,000 indecency fine against CBS Corp. for the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show that ended with Janet Jackson’s breast-baring ‘‘wardrobe malfunction.’’
The three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Federal Communications Commission ‘‘acted arbitrarily and capriciously’’ in issuing the fine for the fleeting image of nudity. The court found that the FCC deviated from its nearly 30-year practice of fining indecent broadcast programming only when it was so ‘‘pervasive as to amount to ’shock treatment’ for the audience.’’
‘‘The Commission’s determination that CBS’s broadcast of a nine-sixteenths of one second glimpse of a bare female breast was actionably indecent evidenced the agency’s departure from its prior policy,’’ the court found.
But Tim Winter of the watchdog organization Parents Television Council said the court’s decision ‘‘borders on judicial stupidity.’’ ‘‘If a striptease during the Super Bowl in front of 90 million people — including millions of children — doesn’t fit the parameters of broadcast indecency, then what does?’’ Winter said in a statement.
Nine-sixteenths of a second qualifies as a striptease? I think I'd be asking for my dollar back!
Janet Jackson caricature by Chris Ware/McClatchy Newspapers
