JANET JACKSON - COURT SETS ASIDE WARDROBE MALFUNCTION FINE

The FCC's crackdown on television indecency suffered a severe setback Monday as a federal court overturned the agency's $550,000 fine against CBS-owned stations for airing the Janet Jackson breast-baring incident with Justin Timberlake during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. In a unanimous decision, the three-judge appellate court ruled that the FCC had acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" by imposing new standards for indecency "without supplying notice of and a reasoned explanation for its policy departure." CBS issued a statement calling the decision "an important win for the entire broadcasting industry," noting that circumstances occur, "particularly during live programing, when it may not be possible to block unfortunate fleeting material." FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said that he was "surprised" and "disappointed" by the decision. The Parents Television Council, the group that deluged the FCC with protesting letters following the Jackson incident, called the ruling "judicial stupidity," and added, "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?" CBS had maintained that it had no advance knowledge that the "striptease" would occur. And, in its decision the appeals court said that "the FCC cannot impose liability on CBS for the acts of Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake," who were not employees of the network but "independent contractors hired for the limited purposes of the halftime show."

22/07/2008