CBS is off the hook financially, but not with the public
CBS television executives may have gotten off the financial hook for Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" - but they still deserve to be condemned in the court of public opinion.
Most Americans are familiar with what happened during the halftime show of the 2004 Super Bowl, televised live by CBS. The show featured a performance by Justin Timberlake, in which he sang, "Gonna have you naked by the end of this song." After he sang, Timberlake tore off the top of Jackson's costume, exposing her right breast.
A substantial number of viewers, many of them with children who also were watching, were outraged. The Federal Communications Commission then fined CBS $550,000 for breaking FCC broadcast indecency rules.
A federal appeals court in Philadelphia overruled the fine. It stated that the FCC acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" in penalizing CBS.
The court's ruling was, in essence, based on judges' belief that the FCC deviated from its own rules in levying the fine against CBS. We agree that the justice system needs to be exceedingly cautious in permitting any type of censorship. And certainly, government should not make up the rules as it goes. The court was right in ruling in favor of CBS.
But that does not change the facts of the case - about which CBS executives should, but probably will not, be ashamed.
You may recall that all involved blamed the incident on an error, a "wardrobe malfunction." But as the FCC looked into it, it was learned that the breast exposure was planned all along. Jackson herself admitted that the decision to expose her was made during the final rehearsal for the halftime show.
Those involved behaved like teenagers who, condemned for a juvenile prank, tried to claim it was all a mistake. That may not be illegal - but it was certainly inappropriate for the viewing audience.
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42jeff
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08-04-08 5:01 PM
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If the halftime presentation was pre-recorded and presented to the world, CBS should very much require some form of censure. But since it happened on LIVE television, I don't know how you can hold them responsible. How many times have you seen people walk behind LIVE interviews making fools of themselves waving or yelling something at the camera. Should I hold the station that airs this in violation of my right not have to watch people make fools of themselves? Surely common sense could prevail here. It's ridiculous enough now that nearly every live broadcast since -television and radio- has a three to five second delay with somebody ready to bleep/blank/dub/cutoff/whatever something they deem that somebody MAY be offended by. And as for KandeeMann's disagreement with my analogys and declaration of my ignorance, well consider me offended and I'll be suing Qwest since it's through their internet service that I saw the post... You are correct however, people do need to move on...
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KandeeMann2001
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08-04-08 11:56 AM
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People seriously need to get over this. It happened 4 years ago - and people seem to have this obsession with dragging this out. There are so many more important things to focus our energy and attention on - homelessness, sickness, childhood violence - and people would rather be obsessed with this kind of garbage. As for 42jeff, your comparisons are a shining example of your ignorance. Driving into a crowd of people whiel intoxicated or setting an entire ecosystem on fire has NOTHING to do with a 2-second clip of a breast breast on television. And I would be quite ashamed to make such a fool of myself on public display as you've done here. It is exactly this thinking...THIS very self-centered, uneducated thinking...that is the cause of a lot of problems we're facing today. The "public" has moved on and is focused on trying to make a positive change in this world. Perhaps if the few of you invested less time staying wrapped up in this kind of trash, you could make a differe
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42jeff
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08-04-08 9:14 AM
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CBS should be held liable if, and only if, it can be proven that SOMEbody from CBS had ANYthing to do with this. Why hasn't anybody put Timberlake or Jackson on trial for this? Because they're celebrites of course, no suit will be tried. Celebrities are NEVER held accountible for their actions. So I made a paper airplane, lit it on fire and burnt up a forest...are you going to sue the paper manufacturer or me? So I get drunk and drive through a crowd of people? Do you sue the gas station I got the gas from? Sue my high school driver's ed teacher? Sue the brewery that produced the beer I drank? Sue the manufacturer of the car? I dream of a day when people will be again held accountable for their OWN actions instead of blaiming everybody else...but alas...we'll never see those days again...
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