Was anyone watching the half-time show? If so, they may have to convict CBS and the NFL of “eye-slaughter”.

This is a non-issue and is former Chairman Michael Powell paying homage to his right-wing supporters, the presidential administration, and making sure that he was not outcast for his next job (every Chairman is eyeing up what his next job will be, or is creating the position/ industry he can ride into retirement or millionaire-hood). The Commission has no standards, per se. There is no list. The criteria is indeed arbitrary. It goes by what is “indecent” or “profane.” For many years, the second word of George Carlin’s “7 words” was taboo on television. Now, it has evolved into accepted parlance. The same is true of the second word in the three additional words he had to add. That one evolved into a benign term, considerably less vulgar than the first word on the list. So, what is offensive? Is it seeing a nipple slip? Is it watching someone watching people fly planes into buildings on live TV? Is it a beheading from Iraq? What is it, exactly?

For the duration of this event and the lack of shock value (truly, was anyone really shocked by this? I didn’t even see this stupidity on TV and had to cruise the Internet to see what the big deal was, after which I was thoroughly unimpressed)the fine was ridiculous.

We have this crap tying up the courts, while many other individuals - especially politicians - go unchallenged and act with impugnity. That is what *I* find profane.

Okay sports fans, time to put heads back in sand now.

Hey Epi, you can’t spell slaughter without laughter

The entire scene was no big thing! Literally! If anyone should be fined, it should be Timberlake and Jackson, for orchestrating the malfunction. Jackson could have stripped down entirely and I wouldn’t have given it a second thought.

In a simple word, No.

I’ll tell you who should be fined; the STL Post Dispatch for placing a huge picture and article on their front page announcing that there is a section at the ballpark where peanuts are banned. What was once a nationally recognized paper has now stuffed it’s front page with articles you’d expect Andy Taylor to be reading in Mayberry.

The only people being fined should be the news media for making it so noticed. I was watching and didn’t even notice it until the media kept showing it over and over. We will never know if it was something that was intentional or otherwise. As long as we don’t know that, how can we charge anyone. You can’t fix stupid with any amount of money and this is just stupid.

I saw Janet Jackson’s breast for just a fleeting instant and I did not see anything indecent about it, maybe they can show it again so we can get a better look.

No, they shouldn’t. There is much worse on TV than JJ’s boob. The stupid reality shows that are turning our kids into cutthroat competitors at any cost are worse. As is the general treatment of women on the air…still! I didn’t even see the whole thing. I was working on the computer and looked down as Timbie ripped the bodice apart. You go boob lovers. None of us would be alive without them. Baby formula sucks…but so do babies.
Giving men insurance payments for viagra while women can’t get birth control under the same conditions is a FAR worse problem in our world today. But you know that! Almost as bad as letting the Shanahans plea bargain into innocence while the whistleblowers got fired with no retirement monies.

I watched the “wardrobe malfunction” live – I honestly thought they had faked it. It was disconcerting (like a joke that didn’t work) but far from “indecent”. As I watched the thing explode in the following weeks, I was stunned by the level of outrage expressed by certain people. I didn’t think it was worth a fine then and I don’t think it is now.

Off topic, but I’ll share the most jarring thing I saw on TV as a child. I was 11 years old when Anwar Sadat was shot dead by terrorists. I saw on TV, raw footage of men running from the shooting, blood ever where. The image that lodged in my brain was a man walking away clasping his forearm with his other hand – the rest of his arm had been blown off, and blood flowed freely from the stump – the white of his protruding bone still plainly visible despite all the red.

The most jarring thing I’ve seen on TV as an adult was an airplane flying into the World Trade Center. The way it just seemed to disappear inside the building was uncanny – it didn’t seem real. But as the rest of that day unfolded, and I watched the towers fall, one after the other, the reality sank in.

Next to images like these, a half second flash of Janet Jackson sporting a “nipple shield” barely registers.

I can think of few federal bureaucracies that are as complete a waste of taxpayer money as the FCC. You could abolish it tomorrow along with the IRS, Dept of Education, and Dept of Commerce and no one would miss them one bit.

no fine should be imposed on CBS. They didn’t know it was going to happen, I don’t see how they can be made responsible. If it can be proven that Timberlake and Janet Jackson did it on purpose, then they should be fined if anyone.