Nipple Fine Overturned?
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 -- by Bacchus
Remember Janet Jackson’s nipple?
How could you forget?
The FCC’s $550,000 fine for the half-second nippleshow made headlines back in 2004, and has had network TV busily bowdlerizing ever since. Only guess what? The fine has been overturned:
A panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the FCC “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” in issuing the fine for the fleeting image of nudity.
…
The court said the FCC deviated from its nearly 30-year practice of fining indecent broadcast programming only when it was so “pervasive as to amount to ‘shock treatment’ for the audience.”
