http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/07/jackson.indecency.reut/index.html WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Pop singer Janet Jackson's bare breast flash earlier this year will result in a record $550,000 fine for 20 CBS television stations, U.S. Federal Communications Commission officials said Tuesday. The five FCC commissioners have voted to accept a staff recommendation to fine the 20 television stations that CBS owns $27,500 each but let the remaining 200-plus CBS affiliates escape penalty, according to the officials, who declined to be identified. The commissioners' voting was completed last week. Jackson caused a stir in February when fellow singer Justin Timberlake ripped part of her costume exposing her breast during the halftime show of the Super Bowl championship football game that aired on CBS in February. After an enormous outcry from lawmakers and parents' groups, the FCC launched a probe into whether federal decency regulations were violated and began a crackdown on other sexually explicit antics on television and radio. The FCC was unanimous in voting to fine the 20 stations owned by CBS, which is a unit of media conglomerate Viacom Inc. , but at least one FCC commissioner questioned letting the other stations that aired the show off the hook. Although the commissioners have finished voting on their decision, it will not be formally announced for several days while the commissioners finish writing their public statements, the FCC officials said. FCC spokesman Richard Diamond declined to comment. "We would be extremely disappointed in such a ruling," said CBS spokesman Dana McClintock. "While we regret that the incident occurred and have apologized to our viewers, we continue to believe that nothing in the Super Bowl broadcast violated indecency laws." In addition to owning CBS, Viacom also owns the MTV cable network which produced the now-controversial halftime show. But the FCC is only authorized to apply decency rules to broadcast stations. CBS and MTV have said they did not know in advance of the singers' stunt, but parents groups have said the incident could have been kept off the air if the network had implemented a tape delay system. U.S. regulations bar television and radio stations from airing obscene material and also limit showing indecent material to late night hours when children are less likely to be watching or listening. FCC staff recommended in June that the 20 television stations owned by CBS receive the maximum fine of $27,500 each, which a senior FCC official said was a record for one incident when added up, but the staff did not urge a financial penalty for the other stations. Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, a Democrat, questioned why the agency did not address all the stations that aired the show, according to one official. ----------------------------------------------- This is absurd. The whole reaction to the "incident" was ridiculous, but I really don't get this. How can you punish stations for airing a live broadcast? How many years has it been since a Superbowl was tape-delayed? Is the government going to come out with a color-coded tittie-alert system?
Hypocrisy at its finest. If they really want to clean things up why don't does idiots and bastards around the country that were offended by the waldrobe malfunction clamour for the erradication of the gratuitous and more offensive cheerleaders? What about other offensive things at other sporting events that go on daily and other TV shows? Get rid of the useless cheerleaders and then this finest might make sense. Nonesense rubbish
its really sad... when you consider that the only people that actually saw it live were people with TIVO (since it was a blink of an eye) - the real fines should be given out to the news services that ran it non-stop for 2 weeks afterward
It's a teat and not a very good looking one at that! The FCC should only license bandwidth and frequencies, not license content. Apply the 1st Amendment in its totality to broadcast media and let the free market decide what should be on TV instead of Colin Powell's son and a bunch of bureaucrats.
hopefully they can somehow make janet pay.. did she get a paycheck for her performance or did they take it all away from her for that stunt?
really??? no content restrictions at all, bama?? i'd have to think about that. but that doesn't sound like a good idea to me right off the bat. i'd like to be able to turn on the TV in some fashion with my son in the room and not have to worry about him seeing or hearing something i'd rather him not be exposed to yet.
I'm not fond of the idea of a bunch of starched-suit wearing old men deciding what should and should not be broadcast. Besides, the tome-like FCC regs are obsolete in this area of convergence with new media outlets such as the internet and satellite. I hate to say this Max, but why not change the channel or tell your kids that some channels are off-limits and set a punishment for catching them watching them? I do and my kids have limited their exposure to harmful elements.
it was a football game, bama. a football game. i had no idea people would be taking off their clothes. we had kids over from our church youth group together watching the game. i had no idea what was to come. there are definitely channels i've locked from son. there are definite restrictions on TV in my home for my son. sports don't typically fall in those restrictions in my home.
See, we agree on something, and you didn't have to call anyone a Bolshevik or a wacked out, leftist pinko. And I think the teat wasn't much to look at as well. Much prefer my wife's. Kumbaya!
It was a teat, Max, a teat! The fact MTV was putting it on, a channel banned from my children for its debauchery and p*rnography masquerading as programming, should have clued you to the fact what follows was not going to be safe to watch. Like I said before, do you really want a bunch of starch-suit wearing old men to determine what can and can not be on TV? Just change the channel.
And that sun device thingy didn't help matters either.... Now if it would have been Brittney's or Lindsey Lohans.....that would be beautiful.
C'mon. How does a naked breast harm children? Is a woman breast-feeding her child in public as weapon of mass destruction? I thought at best it could be a weapon of mass distraction.
cohen.. I don't know exactly how it harms them, but I suppose society decided long ago that it could corrupt them some... I could they should be allowed to buy magazines with topless women etc too?
