The US Supreme Court is ordering a lower court to reconsider reintating the fine against CBS for breastgate.
The high court on Monday directed the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia to consider reinstating the $550,000 fine that the Federal Communications Commission imposed on CBS over Jackson’s breast-baring performance at the 2004 Super Bowl.
Last week, SCOTUS upheld the FCC policy of fining even one-time uses of prohibited words on live television. But CBS rightfully argues it could not have anticipated the image that caused so much commotion, an image of a breast being considred as unacceptable as a curse word.
The appellate court said the incident lasted nine-sixteenths of one second and should have been regarded as “fleeting.” The FCC previously 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,” the court said.
