The U.S. government’s campaign against television indecency was dealt a blow on Monday when a court overturned a $550,000 fine against CBS Corp television stations for airing a glimpse of pop singer Janet Jackson’s breast during the 2004 Super Bowl broadcast. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said the Federal Communications Commission had “arbitrarily and capriciously departed from its prior policy” that exempted fleeting broadcast material from actionable indecency violations.
Jackson’s right breast was exposed to almost 90 million TV viewers for a fraction of a second during the live 2004 Super Bowl football halftime show in what fellow pop singer Justin Timberlake later called a “wardrobe malfunction.” Timberlake ripped off part of Jackson’s bustier exposing Jackson’s breast during the show. Despite the brevity, lawmakers and regulators were outraged and vowed a crackdown on broadcast indecency.
The judges rejected the FCC’s argument that the “fleeting” policy had only applied to words, not images. “Like any agency, the FCC may change its policies without judicial second-guessing. But it cannot change a well- established course of action without supplying notice of and a reasoned explanation for its policy departure,” Chief Judge Anthony Scirica wrote for the three-judge panel that heard the case.
[...]
The decision got a sharp rebuke from the Parents Television Council, an indecency watchdog group. It said the ruling “borders on judicial stupidity” and urged lawmakers in Congress to pass a bill to strengthen anti-indecency enforcement. “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?” the group asked.
But, of course, it wasn’t a “striptease” but rather an instantaneous “Did I just see what I thought I saw?!” moment. And, while I don’t believe for a moment that Jackson and/or Timberlake didn’t plan the incident to generate precisely the buzz they got, it’s simply bizarre to fine CBS for airing something that happened outside their control during a live broadcast.
Steven Taylor, whose post on the subject is entitled “Janet Jackson’s Right Breast Ruled Constitutional,” guesses this will be appealed to the Supreme Court. Too bad we don’t Potter Stewart isn’t around any more.
Pornography is very popular these days with the American working class (Woo! Stimulus checks!).
But that does not make it FCC approved. And it certainly is not an acceptable mixer with children’s rugby in New Zealand. But that’s what parents and fans of the kid’s sport were treated to while watching a live broadcast of “Grassroots Rugby” on the New Zealand television channel Prime.
A spokesman for Prime Television on Monday blamed a mixup in “distribution processes” for the error which inserted the hardcore segment in the regular program “Grassroots Rugby.”
The segment was intended to air on an adult pay-per-view channel.
Yeah, so, um, whoops? On the bright side of things, at least it puts the whole Janet Jackson - Nipplegate thing in perspective. Because, apparently, this was not just a little side boob getting flashed, it was the full hardcore pornography.
The downside is parents are going to complain and steer their kids away from your station. The upshot, though, is that by combining kids’ sports and porn, Prime has corned the market on the coveted “creepjob” demographic.
And now the totally work safe video (sorry…) of the not so thrilled parents being interviewed.
Joan Rivers issued an apology, of sorts, for dropping the F-bomb and a scatological reference in the same breath on a live British TV show.
“Yes, I swore, and I’m so f—— sorry.”
Well dang Joan… that makes it all f—— better, thanks for that.
The comedian, who has publicly admitted to being in her 70s, said in a statement – though the statement actually spelled out the same offending word Rivers used on the chat show Loose Women (a kind of British version of The View).
Rivers went code blue when she was asked about the challenges of interviewing celebrities on the red carpet. She said, “Get ready to bleep this,” before using the offending words while talking about Russell Crowe.
Only the show didn’t bleep it… it was LIVE!
“We do apologize for that,” the host said into the camera. “Joan didn’t realize that we were absolutely live.”
Rivers, who was promoting her live show Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress By a Life in Progress, which will open the Edinburgh International Festival in August, was then asked to leave the set during a commercial break.
“No one told me the TV show Loose Women was a reality show and that I would be voted off,” said she later in her statement. “It’s funny: offstage, I hardly ever use profanity. My favorite four-letter word is ’shop.”
Nobody ever said this woman had any class… whatsoever. I wonder if they have strict FCC-type laws in Britain?
source: Joan Rivers: ‘I’m So (Bleep)-ing Sorry’ for Swearing on Live TV [people]
In the November issue of Vanity Fair, Victoria’s Secret models Miranda Kerr, Alessandra Ambrosio, Karolina Kurkova, Izabel Goulart, Selita Ebanks, and Adriana Lima stripped down even more than they do for those lingerie commercials.
The models next gig will be the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, airing December 4 on CBS. The FCC is probably already hiring call takers for the onslaught.
Source: “Victoria’s Secret Models Naked In Vanity Fair (Photos and Video)” [Right Celebrity]
The real Van Halen is getting back together for the first time in twenty years.
Van Halen will announce a 50-date American reunion tour with original singer David Lee Roth during a news conference in Hollywood next week, sources said. The arena trek will begin in early October.
Roth, who split from the rock group in the mid-1980s in hopes of solo stardom, will reunite with co-founders Eddie Van Halen on guitar and brother Alex Van Halen on drums. Eddie’s teenage son Wolfgang will sub for Michael Anthony on bass.
We’ll see whether the old boy’s still got it.
Source: Van Halen, Roth to announce tour next week [Reuters]
Matt Leinart, the hailed USC quarterback and now quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals, has a son with former USC women’s basketball player Brynn Cameron. Cameron was interviewed in the VENTURA (CA) DAILY STAR where she accuses Leinart of having zero role in the upbringing of his only son:
“It’s kind of hard for me as the mom — I’m with Cole probably 99.9 percent of the time — to open a magazine or read a newspaper article with Matt saying, Oh, I love being a dad. I love changing diapers. I love doing this. I’m like, Wait, what?’ I don’t know how to word how he is about this, but it’s been hard when I’m doing all the work, but he gets all the credit for it.”
The Star also reports that Cameron said that Leinart “comes and goes whenever he wants.”
“I don’t want to sit here and bad-mouth his lifestyle, but it is hard because we are different people. He likes that Hollywood stuff and I don’t like that and raising a kid together, you have to work together as parents, but we’re so different.
You have to wonder about anyone photographed with Paris Hilton. I’m taking Brynn’s side on this one.
Filmmakers now might get an R rating as a thank you for smoking.
The Motion Picture Assn. of America (MPAA) said Thursday that its rating board will consider film depictions of smoking among the criteria for assigning movie ratings. Anti-tobacco activists have been pressing for an automatic R rating for films with smoking scenes, but MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman rejected the proposal for a more nuanced approach.
“The MPAA film rating system has existed for nearly 40 years as an educational tool for parents to assist them in making decisions about what movies are appropriate for their children,” Glickman said. “It is a system that is designed to evolve alongside modern parental concerns.”
In line with that evolution, the MPAA ratings board “will now consider smoking as a factor among many other factors, including violence, sexual situations and language, in the rating of films,” he said.
“Clearly, smoking is increasingly an unacceptable behavior in our society,” Glickman said. “There is broad awareness of smoking as a unique public health concern due to nicotine’s highly addictive nature, and no parent wants their child to take up the habit. The appropriate response of the rating system is to give more information to parents on this issue.”
Glickman described the move as an extension of the MPAA’s practice of factoring underage smoking into the rating of films. The ratings board will ask three questions, he said:
- Is the smoking pervasive?
- Does the film glamorize smoking?
- Is there a historic or other mitigating context?
Also, when a film’s rating is affected by the depiction of smoking, the rating will include such phrases as “glamorized smoking” or “pervasive smoking.”
“Some have called for a mandatory R rating on all films that contain any smoking,” Glickman said. “We do not believe such a step would further the specific goal of providing information to parents on this issue. Unfortunately, the debate on this extreme proposal has become heavily politicized, and many inaccurate statements have been made. While those pushing this proposal are no doubt well-intentioned, it is important that there is an accurate understanding of the declining prevalence of smoking in non-R-rated films.”
From July 2004-July 2006, the percentage of films that included “even a fleeting glimpse of smoking” dropped from 60% to 52%, and 75% of those fetched an R rating for other factors, he said.
The Directors Guild of America was among several organizations issuing statements of support for the MPAA moves.
“The DGA supports the MPAA’s announced enhancements to the ratings system and applauds their effort to provide parents with increased information on the depiction of smoking in movies,” the guild said. “We appreciate that they, like us, are working to find the delicate balance between addressing important health concerns and safeguarding free expression.”
The Screen Actors Guild also gave a statement of support.
“As advocates for both creative rights and child-protection legislation, we believe this is a reasonable approach to deal with a serious health issue,” SAG deputy national executive director Pamm Fair said.
American Cancer Society CEO John Seffrin said he was pleased by the MPAA’s “substantive effort to eliminate tobacco use as a cause of death and disability.”
Seffrin cited “evidence that children and youth are particularly vulnerable to the images of tobacco use on movie screens.”
But not all the reaction was rosy.
American Legacy Foundation said the new MPAA ratings policy “falls short and fails to implement the meaningful recommendations set forth by numerous organizations.” Washington-based ALF states its mission as being “dedicated to a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit.”
Hollywood has been under increasing pressure to take steps to ease the purported effect of entertainment content in several areas, from smoking to child obesity. Next week on Capitol Hill, the Senate Commerce Committee begins its examination of the effect violent content has on children.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is expected to introduce legislation giving the FCC the power to regulate such content — much as it does indecent content on television. In April, the FCC approved a report on TV violence that asked lawmakers for the requisite enforcement powers.
A Senate-FCC industry task force has been convened to identify ways of forcing content producers to encourage children to eat healthy foods.
Seeing the success of Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” and “Colbert Report,” Fox News is working on a conservative news satire show.
Fox News Channel might air two episodes of a “Daily Show”-like program with a decidedly nonliberal bent on Saturday nights in late January, with the possibility that it could become a weekly show for the channel.
The half-hour show is executive produced by “24’s” Joel Surnow and Manny Cota and creator Ned Rice, who previously wrote for “Politically Incorrect” and “Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson” through This Just In Prods. It would take aim at what Surnow calls “the sacred cows of the left” that don’t get made as much fun of by other comedy shows. “It’s a satirical news format that would play more to the Fox News audience than the Michael Moore channel,” Surnow said. “It would tip more right as ‘The Daily Show’ tips left.”
There would certainly be an audience for such a show but the description here does not look promising. For one thing, a once-a-week format is unlikely to work. There are already a flurry of late-night comedians doing their takes on the events of the day, not to mention “Saturday Night Live” and other weekly venues. Immediacy is part of the effectiveness of these shows. Further, it’s not just the format that has done so well for Comedy Central but the hosts. Unless they find someone with the comedic timing and ability to be simultaneously likable and snarky that Stewart and Colbert possess, the show won’t make it.
After a year hyping his exodus to Sirius satellite radio, it looks like Howard Stern is now working a deal to go back to good old FCC-controlled air, according to the NY Post’s John Mainelli.
Howard Stern may be coming back to earth - on WPLJ or WABC. Radio insiders are reporting rampant rumors that the shock jock will “do an Opie & Anthony” and return to old-fashioned radio from the obscurity of satellite radio.
Persistent industry chatter says “some sort of mega-deal’s brewing among Sirius [Satellite] chief Mel Karmazin, Stern and Mel’s longtime associate Farid Suleman,” says Inside Radio editor Tom Taylor. Suleman currently runs Citadel Broadcasting, which is buying Disney/ABC’s radio division, including WPLJ (95.5 FM) and WABC (770 AM). In his widely read tradesheet, Taylor said the rumors “just won’t die, despite what Stern and Sirius have said in the past.” This much is certain: Stern has complained loudly of late about published reports that he’s lost his influence and is no longer a “watercooler topic” since he bolted from CBS for Sirius in a $500 million deal last January.
My wife and I bought Sirius last Christmas at least partly for Stern. After about two episodes, we gave up. Stern had to be clever to get away with being “dirty” on regular radio. It’s just too easy to do a blue show and gimmicks gave way to raunch.
A federal court has thrown out the FCC’s $550,000 fine against CBS for airing the Janet Jackson - Justin Timberlake “wardrobe malfunction” during the 2004 Super Bowl.
The comedian, who has publicly admitted to being in her 70s, said in a statement – though the statement actually spelled out the same offending word Rivers used on the chat show 
Van Halen will announce a 50-date American reunion tour with original singer David Lee Roth during a news conference in Hollywood next week, sources said. The arena trek will begin in early October.
The Motion Picture Assn. of America (MPAA) said Thursday that its rating board will consider film depictions of smoking among the criteria for assigning movie ratings. Anti-tobacco activists have been pressing for an automatic R rating for films with smoking scenes, but MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman rejected the proposal for a more nuanced approach. 
