PART 1
Actually, I'm on the side of the FCC on this one. Their job IS to monitor and safeguard the airwaves from offensive material and, whether you agree with it or not, nudity aired on prime time TV during a "family friendly" event like the Super Bowl certainly warrants a slap on the wrist.
And make no mistake about it, that's what this amounts to -- a slap on the wrist. The FCC fined CBS the same way that they've fined other stations in the past... the fine was for only about $500,000, which was an incredible drop in the bucket when weighed against the ka-zillion dollars that CBS actually raked in for the Superbowl... and then the FCC said, "Promise not to do it again and you're good to go."
But instead CBS got whorish about the money, so they decided to fight rather than simply pay up. And the reason the case went to the Supreme Court is because they had ruled only a week or so earlier that Fox stations were also guilty of violating FCC rules, I believe for not bleeping out Bono at an awards show where he said "fuck" on live TV. Which, frankly, Fox should have easily caught given "time delay" technology that everyone uses these days. (I think it was Fox that was guilty of the Bono incident. All the same, that was another incident that really pissed off the FCC). At any rate, in that instance, they were likewise trying to resist paying any fines or any money leaving their bank account. And for the record, the Supreme Court didn't decide either of these cases -- it actually pushed them back to the lower courts to handle and instructed them to reconsider their previous decisions, otherwise THEN they'd hear the cases.
Basically, it works out like this. CBS dooesn't feel it should pay a fine because it was an "accidental costume malfunction" that took place, which allowed Janet Jackson's breast to be shown. Plus, CBS feels that IF there was some hanky-panky going on...if someone was trying to draw attention to themselves...then this had nothing to do with them, as the broadcast network. Instead the fault lies with Jackson and Justin Timberlake (in other words, CBS is also alluding to the fact that THEY planned all of this behind the scenes to get their names in the news even more).
Meanwhile, Fox in the Bono case tried using the insane legal defense that if you let people "accidentally" (>wink wink<) say words like "fuck" on live TV it's better for all concerned. Because if someone curses on TV,
then the viewers at home will be more likely to sit up and take notice...
and if the networks had more people sitting up and taking notice...well,
then those same people would watch even
more TV...and once that happened
then the TV stations would have better ratings...which
in turn means that higher prices could charged for commercial air time (the ad revenue that TV stations desperately rely on to survive).
So, in the whacked out minds of the broadcasters, if you extrapolate it to the very end, the FCC and the government should actually be
glad that there are breasts or "fucks" on TV since it means more money all around. So, see? TV networks are actually your friend! They're only giving you more sex and violence and foul language to help out the economy!
