Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Artifact Four

Nate Anderson. "One boob==963,000 FCC Complaints". 5 Oct 2006. 3 Jan 2007.http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2006/10/05/one-boob-equals-963000-fcc-complaints/?url=http%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fnews.ars%2Fpost%2F20061005-7912.html&frame=true

Though the title seems funny at first, it caused a lot of trouble for the FCC (Federal Communications Commission). The FCC's job to monitor all the programing, whether television or radio, and make sure that what goes on the air is appropriate for the public. If a song has some bad lyrics, the FCC makes sure that the song doesn't go on the air or at least the lyrics are changed so it can go on the air. If a television show is inappropriate because of certain elements such as violence or nudity, they make sure that that show doesn't go on the air for the general public to see or edit certain aspects like reducing violent scenes or make any nudity in the show very brief.


Every quarter, or year, the FCC makes up a report of any and all complaints that they've received. For many years, the number of complaints that the FCC received were few and far between by parents who are concerned what their children are watching. But because of one incident in 2004, the FCC complaints rose from a few hundred, to a few hundred thousand.

If you ask anyone why they watch the Super Bowl, you get two reasons: football and the halftime show. During Super Bowl XXXVIII, or 38, football fans in the stadium and watching the game alike saw a little more of a certain pop star then expected. When Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson were singing on stage, people thought it was great. Then amidst all the singing and dancing, something went wrong. What can only be called a wardrobe malfunction was when Justin ripped off part of Janet's outfit and her, well, what's a proper way of saying this, breast hung out for thousands upon thousands of fans saw on live television.

This lead to many FCC complaints in February of 2004, about 693,080 to be exact. While was a high for the FCC, within the next few months, the complaints dropped from the thousands in February to less then a thousand in June. The number of complaints had decreased by over 800 percent in less then half a year.






courtesy of picsearch.com

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