Today a federal appeals court shot down the $550,000 fine the FCC levied against CBS after Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson’s infamous "wardrobe malfunction" shocked viewers during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. The court said the fine was "arbitrary and capricious." It had been the largest fine ever for a TV station. The New York Times has the story here.

Reactions to the "wardrobe malfunction," which came to be known as NippleGate, were varied, but Michael Powell, the FCC chairman, ordered an investigation into the show. An AP poll at the time showed that while more than half Americans thought the show was in bad taste, only 18 percent thought it was an illegal act worthy of investigation.

But that didn’t stop Heather Wilson. Her teary castigation of the president of Viacom, CBS’ parent company made headlines. Her statements at an FCC hearing were regarded by many as grandstanding. While she was lauded by some for standing up to indecency, critics said she turned in an overly dramatic performance, trying to court conservative voters in an election year.

"I should not have to use an NFL halftime show as a negative example to teach my children," Wilson said, sounding as though she were on the verge of tears. A sentence later, her voice went back to normal as she started in with "As a legislator…" Then she went back to teary as she took Viacom to task: "You wanted us all to be abuzz, here in this room, and on the playground of my kids’ school, because it improved your ratings. It improved your market share and it lined your pockets."

See the video here.

Many pundits at the time thought Wilson went overboard. Weekly Alibi posted the audio of Wilson’s teary castigation on its Web site, mocking her mercilessly long after the fuss was over. "They’re just looking for something that is going to appeal to conservative middle Americans and the whole thing is ridiculous," Gail Shister, TV columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, told Howard Kurtz on CNN’s "Reliable Sources."

One year later, New York Times columnist Frank Rich lamented the backlash from NippleGate:

This repressive cultural environment was officially ratified on Nov. 2, when Ms. Jackson’s breast pulled off its greatest coup of all: the re-election of President Bush. Or so it was decreed by the media horde that retroactively declared "moral values" the campaign’s decisive issue and the Super Bowl the blue states’ Waterloo. The political bosses of "family" organizations, well aware that TV’s collective wisdom becomes reality whether true or not, have been emboldened ever since. They are spending their political capital like drunken sailors, redoubling their demands that the Bush administration marginalize gay people, stamp out sex education and turn pop culture into a continuous loop of "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm."