Court rules Janet Jackson nipplegate fine was unfair to CBS

[DainBramaged]

A federal appeals court has ruled that the FCC acted improperly when it imposed a half-million dollar fine on CBS for broadcasting an image of Janet Jackson's exposed nipple for a fraction of a second during the 2004 Super Bowl. The court ruled that the broadcast was legal under the FCC's then-current policy of allowing "fleeting" indecency on the airwaves, and that it was unfair of the FCC to change the policy retroactively.

Wednesday's ruling is the second time the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has sided with CBS on the issue. It reached the same conclusion in a 2008 ruling. But the Supreme Court asked the Third Circuit to reconsider after ruling that the FCC could punish Fox for "fleeting expletives" uttered by Cher and Nicole Richie during broadcasts in 2002 and 2003.

We conclude that, if anything, the Supreme Court's decision fortifies our original opinion," wrote a two-judge majority on Wednesday. In the Fox case, the FCC had notified broadcasters of a change in policy related to "fleeting expletives," and the argument focused on whether the FCC had adequately justified the change. In contrast, the FCC had not notified CBS of a policy change before smacking the network with a $550,000 fine for the nipplegate incident.

Judge Scirica, the author of the court's original opinion, dissented from Wednesday's ruling. He argued that the Supreme Court's Fox decision meant that "the safe harbor for fleeting nonliteral expletives was an isolated exception rather than an instance of a more general rule." Hence, he said, punishing CBS for nipplegate was consistent with the policies the FCC had in place at the time.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/11/court-rules-nipplegate-fine-was-unfair-to-cbs.ars


Amazing how the morality police fought over this for so long. 7 years to overturn stupid. But stupid has already become entrenched.

[FSogol]

1. Will Nancy Grace's nipple-gate work its way thru the courts next?

:shrug:

[boston bean]

2. That is what the world is waiting to know.... you're right!

[Nye Bevan]

3. Americans are *so* weird about breasts (nt)

[zbdent]

10. absolutely true ... true story:

I was watching some show on one of the cable channels (of course, if it supports RW causes, they get away with stuff more often) where they were covering a person making the gender change from male to female.

Here was a male, getting breast implants. Prior to the surgery, there was no problem of showing his bare chest (with nipples).

Then ... as the surgery commenced, suddenly the "male" nipple had to be pixilated ... but the slicing open of the skin was not ...

It was "odd" to me that, knowing that the nipple was on a MALE, it suddenly was taboo ... not the entire breast, but just the nipple ...

[KharmaTrain]

4. Typical...

This is almost how every FCC fine ends up. They make a big stink to satisfy the morality cops out there and then after years of rumbling through the courts the fine is over ruled and CBS or whomever walks away. The big winner, of course, are the lawyers with oodles of billable hours.

[jberryhill]

5. I have permanently damaged children!

My kids were exposed to this, and while they seem like normal adults now, who knows how long it might take before this thing manifests itself in some horrific pathology.

Who is gonna pay for THAT, eh?

#OccupyJanetJacksonsBra

[dtexdem]

8. Yeah, and just think of the babies!

Billions of infants are exposed every year to the view of naked female breasts -- and look at how screwed up the world is in consequence. ;-)

[RockaFowler]

6. How come guy's boobs are OK??

And some of them have moobs which are even worse than a nipple with jewelry on it. Uh and has anyone seen the Victoria Secret show?? Those women wear just as much or even less than what Ms Jackson wore all those years ago . . .

[yellowcanine]

13. Good question since they also clearly have nipples.

[jberryhill]

14. OK for what?

[RockaFowler]

16. Shirtless guys on TV all the time

Nipples are shown on guys and that's OK. Nipples on women are very bad

[dtexdem]

7. Any event that gave us the term "nipplegate" deserves to be exempted from fines.

;-)

[zbdent]

9. it served its purpose ...

one use of "nipplegate" was that it got Howard Stern off the "free" airwaves ... conveniently just after he appeared to be turning away from his support of George W. Bush's "re-"election.

But then, Faux aired the video of a guy in a "F*ck (the other team)" t-shirt at a sporting event for far longer than JJ's nipple aired ... and the courts ruled that it wasn't as "obscene" ...

[Javaman]

11. Frankly, I think most half time shows are a crime against humanity...

but that's for another conversation.

[yellowcanine]

12. I can't believe you used the n word in a thread title.

At least you didn't say "tit-gate".

[Tsiyu]

15. Members of the FCC trying to justify their fat paychecks

and lazy job performance.

They should be fining local AM stations for the propaganda they spew relentlessly.

They should restore the Fairness Doctrine so that the majority of Americans are not shut out of their own airwaves by the 1% Media.

Instead, they focus on a nipple.

Because Americans are more damaged seeing a baby's-milk-dispensing body part than they are by the years and years and years and years of hatred and propaganda and 100% partisan talk spewing from our Airwaves.

Way to go, FCC! You only proved how badly you suck! And wasted taxpayer money doing so!