Sorry Ms. Jackson

Remember when there was a slight wardrobe malfunction at the 2004 super bowl? In their halftime performance Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson caused quite the stir when too much of Ms. Jackson was displayed. You probably had forgotten all about this, and for good reason, because it was five years ago. Unfortunately the irresponsibility of these pop stars had caused major problems for CBS and wasted plenty of taxpayers’ money through dragged out court cases.

 After the incident occurred back in January of 2004 the Federal Communications Commission fined CBS $550,000. By July 2006 CBS had taken the FCC to federal court to try and appeal the fine and in July 2008 it was finally appealed. Today the Los Angeles Times reported that the Supreme Court mandated that the case should be looked at again and was sent to the Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, so CBS may end up having to pay the fine.

Is it the government itself that is wasting money and time pursuing this case? Maybe they are just doing their job. As much as we might feel that the “wardrobe malfunction” doesn’t matter that much, when it occurred the FCC had to do something. If they had not issued a fine there would have been even more complaints then the ones that we have today over why this is still continuing. It is unfortunate that the court system is long and arduous, but our appeals system allows more fairness and fewer mistakes. It is easy to want the government to just drop the whole thing and stop being wasteful, but they are just trying to be responsible.

Maybe instead we should be annoyed those who were being irresponsible – JT and Janet. Maybe CBS or MTV’s (they produced the show) told them to do it, the fact is that Jackson and Timberlake made a decision and it was the wrong one. Why weren’t Timberlake and Jackson held accountable for their actions? They offended the American public and caused an uproar that forced the government to act, which in turn used up the public’s time and money within the legal system. Today they seem unaffected as they continue to tour and put out new cds, but as the court cases continue their action continues to affect us.