NBC likely to face complaints to FCC over Super Bowl halftime show

NBC will likely face formal complaints after singer M.I.A. flipped off the camera during Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show.

A spokeswoman for the Parents Television Council said the organization won’t ask the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to fine NBC over the incident, but “we’re certain others will do so whether we encourage them to or not.”

{mosads}An FCC spokesman declined to comment.

The FCC fined CBS $550,000 for Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show after the network aired a split-second view of the singer’s breast.

“The NFL hired the talent and produced the halftime show,” an NBC spokesman said in a statement. “Our system was late to obscure the inappropriate gesture and we apologize to our viewers.”

“There was a failure in NBC’s delay system. The gesture in the performance was completely inappropriate, very disappointing, and we apologize to our fans,” Brian McCarthy, an NFL spokesman, told The Hill in a statement.

The Supreme Court is currently considering whether the FCC’s power to fine broadcast television stations over “indecent content” violates the First Amendment’s free speech protections. 

Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council, blasted NBC and the NFL for not preventing Sunday’s incident.

“NBC fumbled and the NFL lied because a performer known as M.I.A. felt it necessary to flip off millions of families,” Winter said in a statement. “It is unfortunate that a spectacular sporting event was overshadowed once again by broadcasting the selfish acts of a desperate performer.

“The mechanism NBC had in place to catch this type of material completely failed, and the network cannot say it was caught off guard. It has been eight years since the Janet Jackson striptease, and both NBC and the NFL knew full well what might happen,” Winter added. 

“They chose a lineup full of performers who have based their careers on shock, profanity and titillation. Instead of preventing indecent material, they enabled it. M.I.A. used a middle finger shamelessly to bring controversial attention to herself, while effectively telling an audience filled with children, ‘F– you.’ “

It seems unlikely, however, that the FCC will slap NBC with a fine over the incident.

Andrew Schwartzman, policy director for nonprofit law firm Media Access Project, said it is unclear whether giving the middle finger falls under the FCC’s authority to police indecent content.

“It’s not nudity. It’s not a depiction of sexual or excretory activity,” Schwartzman said. “It embodies a crude, even indecent thought, but it’s not really expressed.”

He said it is especially unlikely for the FCC to take any action until the Supreme Court rules on the extent of the agency’s authority.

“They may get pressure from Congress,” Shwartzman said. “But my guess is very little will come from this.”

He added that he was surprised that NBC didn’t do more to prevent the incident.

“You’d think after the Janet Jackson thing, they’d have an iron-clad contract with [M.I.A.],” Schwartzman said.

—This story was updated at 12:15 p.m.