It looks like America will never recover from seeing a nipple. A recent ruling by the Supreme Court has opened the floodgates for a re-examination of past FCC violations, including Bono’s 2003 Golden Globes slip and, of course, Nipplegate, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s “wardrobe malfunction” at the 2004 Super Bowl.
MSNBC reports that the Supreme Court has “directed the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia to consider reinstating the $550,000 fine” against CBS for showing 140 million people one breast. Before last week, a single offense of indecency could be deemed “fleeting,” aka “no big deal,” but now even live television isn’t safe from censors.
The case has been put on the back burner while the court deals with another past violation from Fox, but “nine-sixteenths of one second” of nudity may put an end to live TV as we know it.