Court In Phila. Tosses FCC Fine

Hooray! A heroic federal appeals court in Philadelphia — a judicial panel including Midge Rendell — this morning tossed out the hillion-jillion dollar fine the FCC levied on CBS for the Janet Jackson nipple-flashing incident in the 2004 Super Bowl.

Yes, apparently the court just got around to ruling on this event, which happened while I was still in college during the Patriots-Panthers Super Bowl. Jake Delhomme almost won Super Bowl MVP! Remember that? No, of course not, it was a Patriots Super Bowl win and you’ve hopefully put it out of your mind. Well, ha ha, now it’s back in. And so is this term: “Wardrobe malfunction.” It’s like the second half of senior year of college all over again. For me, at least.

“The Commission’s determination that CBS’ broadcast of a nine-sixteenths of one second glimpse of a bare female breast was actionably indecent evidenced the agency’s departure from its prior policy,” the court found. “Its orders constituted the announcement of a policy change — that fleeting images would no longer be excluded from the scope of actionable indecency.” Umm, yes, whatever. The little plucky underdog, CBS, has successfully challenged its fine, which would have put it out of business if enacted.

Thanks for making us side with a giant media conglomerate, FCC.

Update: Here’s the ruling, in all its PDF-y glory.

Court tosses FCC `wardrobe malfunction’ fine [AP/Yahoo!]