Posted on 06/11/2009 6:06:59 AM PDT by steve-b
This month the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals to take a second look at its ruling finding that Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl peep show wasn’t indecent and didn’t merit the $550,000 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fine that was levied against CBS.
The High Court move followed on the heels of its first broadcast decency ruling in 30 years when on April 28 it ruled that so-called “fleeting” violations of the broadcast decency law can be considered indecent and result in fines for broadcasters. In the case at issue, Fox fought tooth and nail against the FCC after it was fined for airing the F- and S-words during awards show broadcasts.
Broadcasters should be held accountable for what they air, regardless of whether it’s harsh profanity or blatant nudity. It’s incredible that there is still no resolution in the five-year-old Janet Jackson case.
I remember that Super Bowl and unfortunately couldn’t forget it if I tried. We were having a party with our closest friends and about 15 kids. Everyone was excited about the halftime show since it featured my cousin, Justin Timberlake, along with Janet Jackson.
Then all of a sudden, right there in front of 90 million people – my guests and our children included - was Janet Jackson’s bare breast. Call it a “wardrobe malfunction” if you want; I call it intentional and offensive. Personally, I was deeply embarrassed and shocked.
Countless parents just like me took the time to demand action from members of Congress, the FCC, CBS, and even Super Bowl sponsors. Our pleas for consequences in the form of a tape delay and meaningful indecency fine were met.
The FCC stepped up, imposing a record-setting total fine of $550,000 against 27 CBS affiliates. A policy requiring a tape delay for live events was set in stone a week after the Super Bowl aired. Congress voted and passed a law increasing maximum indecency fines from a mere $32,500 to $325,000 per incident -- a drastic improvement.
Parents across the country were thrilled - their voices had been heard. Unfortunately, the reasonable actions that were taken by the FCC that expressed the will of the American people were attacked by CBS.
After CBS’ “sincere” apologies for the incident, the network promptly decided to skirt the FCC fine, even though it uses the public airwaves for free in exchange for agreeing to obey the indecency law.
In actuality, the half a million dollar fine didn’t amount to much more than a slap on the wrist for CBS. It could have been paid with a mere seven seconds of advertising revenue from the game.
As if the incident itself wasn’t maddening enough, parents were delivered another slap in the face. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals said the incident didn’t cause enough outrage and didn't merit a fine. Thankfully, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the 3rd Circuit to review its opinion.
Not enough outrage? Just ask someone at the FCC. Records were set; formal complaints were filed by 500,000 people. Ask someone on Capitol Hill. Switchboards lit up and members of Congress said that more calls had been received regarding nudity during this halftime show than about any other issue to date, including the Iraq war. Ask the news media that descended into a full-blown feeding frenzy. And lastly, ask a parent. They seem to be very last on the list, even though their children are first to be affected by the incident.
We hope that the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals will consider parents and families when it reexamines its Janet Jackson ruling. The countless parents who cared back then certainly can’t give up the decency fight now.
Oh, puh-leeze. This was not the Kennedy assassination. This was not the Challenger explosion. This was not the 9-11 Massacre. This was a stupid publicity stunt by a couple of celebrities who saw their fame timer clicking past 00:14:58.3, forgotten by rational people before the game was over.
One look was more than enough.
Is this really a big deal anymore?
Jackson HERSELF should pay the fine- the broadcasters should sue her for it.
—yeah—talk about tempests in a teapot-—
We also had a group over for Super Sunday. Quite frankly I’m not sure anyone was watching the halftime show because as you point out, the ‘celebrities’ were not particularly notable.
If this author was allowing their children to watch the performance itself, they have no room to bitch. The performance itself was way more vulgar than the 1/2 second showing of Janet's aging, saggy breast.
Was it ever a really big deal? I don’t condone such actions but I don’t if anyone, including children, were in any way harmed by this.
Sure, not Earth-shaking by any standard.
And I like bewbies as much as the next guy (provided the next guy isn’t a homo).
But, there’s a time and place for it and CBS needs to get the message, which will resound with the rest of broadcast entertainment.
Hence my snark at the overblown "OMG I'll Never Forget That Moment" comment.
Oh yes, by all means, let’s have a second look.
^+^
Best,
Chris
I'd sooner admit my dog has the clap.
That was a classic response...fell out of my chair I laughed so hard!!
CBS thought they could get away with it, so they did it.
They needed to make their programming more “edgy”, in order to compete with the Fox Network’s sports programming. CBS was, and still is, seen as stodgy and old-fashioned... Your Father’s Sports Network...
So they bring in Timberlake and Jackson to make some noise and liven things up. And they authorize the display of a bare breast during halftime of the Superbowl to stir up controversy. Mission Accomplished.
They are doing the same thing now with Letterman.
Letterman was comfortable going up against Leno. They were both a couple of old farts, and the fact that they were not particularly adventurous was not a problem. But now Letterman is going up against the much younger, much hipper Conan O’Brian. Suddenly, Letterman is looking a lot like Your Fathers Late Night Programming.
So, suddenly he has to stir things up. Suddenly he has to get edgy and start creating some buzz.
So he makes sexual innuendoes about a 14-year-old on the air. When that doesn’t do the job, he repeats them the next day. When people still find him boring after that, he repeats them again in the form of a non-apology apology.
This is Letterman looking to be “edgy”. We’re going to see a lot more of this in the weeks and months to come as Letterman falls even further behind in the ratings wars.
Glad you liked it.
It’s important by the obvious fact that the people would eventually lose any say over anything which seems to already have been started.
...the NFL let MTV do the half time show and that’s the vulgarity they got....typical MTV product...watch a few minutes of an MTV “awards” show some time and you’ll see for yourself...Leftist crudities to the max.
Ummm, Debra dear, get over it.
I'd sooner admit I gave it to him.
What is going on at CBS? There is the wardrobe “malfunction”, Rathergate, Couric’s Pailin interview and Princeton speech and now Letterman’s idiocy.
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