- CHICAGO (Reuters) - A Tennessee
woman has withdrawn a suit against singer Janet Jackson and others involved
in her breast-baring Super Bowl show until she sees if broadcasters and
regulators are able to clean up television themselves, court papers showed
on Tuesday.
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- The suit filed last week in Knoxville, Tennessee, by
Terri Carlin, had sought class action status and damages for millions of
viewers who might have been exposed to what she said was lewd and inappropriate
conduct by Jackson and others at the halftime event.
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- The suit had named pop star Justin Timberlake, who performed
with Jackson, CBS Broadcasting Inc., show producer MTV Networks Enterprises
Inc., and the parent of those two companies, Viacom Inc. .
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- It had asked the court to order a halt to offensive programing
during hours when children are watching and to award damages for as many
as 80 million U.S. viewers based on revenues from the show and how much
the entertainers were paid.
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- The withdrawal notice filed in federal court on Monday
said Carlin retains the right to refile the suit if self-policing by broadcasters
and fines by regulators do not accomplish what she was after
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- The notice said Carlin's law firm, Ritchie, Fels and
Dillard, which was handling the case for free, was flooded with calls and
mail from parents in nearly every state. It also said that she recognized
that damages, had they been awarded, were likely to have been nominal given
the number of potential victims -- perhaps amounting to no more than the
price of a month's cable TV subscription per person.
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- But if damages had been awarded, it said, wanton disregard
of broadcast regulations would become cost prohibitive for violators.
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- Meanwhile the suit has been shelved "until it is
determined whether the remedial measures recently announced by corporate
defendants, the potential Federal Communications Commission sanctions and
perhaps the passage of stronger enforcement provisions will prevent further
similar conduct."
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- During the halftime show Timberlake tore off half of
Jackson's black leather bustier, exposing her right breast, while the two
were singing a duet.
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- Jackson took the blame but said "it was not my intention
that it go as far as it did." Timberlake apologized for the incident
when he appeared on Sunday's Grammy Awards broadcast, for which CBS used
a delay to censor anything untoward from reaching viewers.
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- ABC also said it will use a delay on its Feb. 29 broadcast
of the Academy Awards.
- © Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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