Fleeting expletives

CBS returned to a Philadelphia appeals court on Tuesday to fight $550,000 in penalties for a 2004 Super Bowl broadcast that showed performer Janet Jackson's breast for nearly a half second, The New York Times reported.

A federal appeals court must reconsider its ruling vacating a $550,000 FCC fine against CBS over Janet Jackson's televised 2004 "wardrobe malfunction," the Supreme Court ordered Monday.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a government policy of sanctioning television networks for one-time utterances of fleeting expletives on live prime-time television.

With all the chuckles, celebrity comments and linguistic explorations into the meaning of the word “fuck,” the oral arguments Tuesday in FCC v. Fox at the Supreme Court at times had the air of a comedy show.

But interwoven among the lighter moments was a weighty discussion about broadcast regulation and the legal and policy implications of the FCC’s move toward fining television stations for one-time use of fleeting expletives.

U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement Thursday filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to reverse a decision by a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, which in June rejected the Federal Communications Commission's policy on fleeting expletives.

The appeals court found that the FCC had not supported its position that isolated and sometimes unintentional language, often on live broadcasts, can make a program indecent and result in penalties for broadcasters.