Court tosses FCC ‘wardrobe malfunction’ fine

By: Steve Huston

***Court tosses FCC ‘wardrobe malfunction’ fine (Associated Press)
***A little person responds

By JOANN LOVIGLIO –

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A federal appeals court on Monday threw out a $550,000 indecency fine against CBS Corp. for the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show that ended with Janet Jackson’s breast-baring “wardrobe malfunction.”

The three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Federal Communications Commission “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” in issuing the fine for the fleeting image of nudity.

The 90 million people watching the Super Bowl, many of them children, heard Justin Timberlake sing, “Gonna have you naked by the end of this song,” as he reached for Jackson’s bustier.

The court found that 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.”

“Like any agency, the FCC may change its policies without judicial second-guessing,” the court said. “But it cannot change a well-established course of action without supplying notice of and a reasoned explanation for its policy departure.”
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gxWZDyth2Gc_b-Zc5-HE4ybQeg8AD92297IG0

Personal response:

Several quick points (please feel free to add your own – email me at
bjohnson@americandecency.org

(1) Credit the FCC for attempting to do its job for the American public. The FCC responded to the out cry of the American public. The FCC found CBS culpable. They fined CBS $550,000. (Though even that figure is merely the cost of doing business for CBS Corp.)

(2) CBS predictably appealed the ruling sending it to one of the most liberal courts of appeal in the country – the 3rd Circuit Court out of Philadelphia.

(3) It has taken four years of court pleadings and wranglings to come to this demoraliziing decision.

(4) This decision unfortunately further erodes the authority of the FCC in regard to matters of the FCC attempting to police America’s airwaves.

(5) This decision is damaging (and make no mistake it is damaging with long term temporal consequences). Yet, it has no effect upon the ultimate authority which all of us are under – whether you, I, CBS Corp and the 3rd Circuit acknowledge it or not.

(6) In such times as these when little people like myself see how scant influence we have over the corrupt powers that be, His people (those who acknowledge Christ as the Son of God and as the
Way, the Truth and the Life) do take refuge in knowing that our God – my God is an awesome God and His Truth is marching on. He is not surprised by such arrogance for He IS in control; not CBS nor the lowly 3rd Circuit Court which today seems so high and mighty.

(7) These movers and shakers of the high courts of our land, these attorneys for CBS Corp, etc., etc., may scoff and laugh at the thought of an eternal God who is high and lifted up, coming again to one day judge the living and the dead. Their arrogance, too, is so predicatable in the light of God’s eternal Word.
Read with me these familiar words:

Why do the nations rage, And the peoples meditate a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against Jehovah, and against his anointed, [saying], 3 Let us break their bonds asunder, And cast away their cords from us. 4 He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh: The Lord will have them in derision. 5 Then will he speak unto them in his wrath, And vex them in his sore displeasure: 6 Yet I have set my king Upon my holy hill of Zion.
[Psalm 2:1-6]

(8) Truth one day will prevail. One day but not now. Therefore, with tears – I write, those who come after us will have more difficulty than us overcoming the filthy darkness that the U.S. government and media have been insisting upon as not only acceptable but as American law which is lawlessness.

Action:

Last week 8 of us sensed the prick of God’s Spirit upon our hearts to pray every Thursday at noon (joining with others here and there). We are praying for God’s mercy upon America; for His forgiveness for what we have done and as we see again today – are doing – turning our back upon His love and righteousness.
See:

http://www.precept.org/site/DocServer/CallToCorporatePrayer.pdf?docID=661

Also:
https://americandecency.org/main.php?f=updates_new/2008/July/07.17.08

American Decency Association
Bill Johnson, President
P.O. Box 202
Fremont, MI 49412
ph: 231-924-4050
www.americandecency.org

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