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CBS Exec Outed by #MeToo Was Obsessed with Ruining Janet Jackson's Career, Report Says

After her 2004 Super Bowl performance with Justin Timberlake—you may know it as "Nipplegate"—Janet Jackson may have been blackballed from all CBS affiliates by Les Moonves, a top executive at the company accused of sexual harassment within the #MeToo move
photos: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic | Tommaso Boddi/WireImage

The expected departure of CBS executive Les Moonves after a New Yorker exposé has brought to light a plethora of issues concerning misconduct during his 20-year career at the network. In addition to the six women who have accused him of sexual harassment, an overarching theme has emerged surrounding the intimidation tactics the 68-year-old used to "derail" careers.

In an exclusive report, HuffPost found that this derailment of careers may also have extended to Janet Jackson after her Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime performance in 2004 with Justin Timberlake, often referred to as "Nipplegate." At the tail end of the performance, Timberlake ripped off Jackson's black leather bustier, accidentally exposing her right breast for nine-sixteenths of a second. The Federal Communications Commission reportedly received over 540,000 complaints and eventually fined CBS for $550,000. But according to HuffPost, Moonves "was convinced it wasn’t a malfunction, but rather an intentional bid to stir up controversy," and systematically damaged Jackson's career because of it. Moonves was allegedly "furious" that Jackson didn't make an apology for the malfunction—unlike Timberlake who "tearfully apologized" and went on to perform at that year's MTV Video Music Awards (an affiliate of CBS), attend and win at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards (broadcast on CBS), and eventually perform again during the Super Bowl LII halftime show this year (once again, on CBS). Jackson, on the other hand, was banned from attending the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards, uninvited from the Grammys, and allegedly blacklisted from promoting her projects on all CBS top music affiliates. HuffPost reports that "Moonves ordered Viacom properties VH1 and MTV, and all Viacom-owned radio stations, to stop playing Jackson’s songs and music videos. The move had a huge impact on sales of her album Damita Jo, which was released in March 2004, just a month after the Super Bowl." In an interview with Broadly, Shannon Holland, a visiting assistant professor of communication studies at Southwestern University and author of the study "The 'Offending' Breast of Janet Jackson: Public Discourse Surrounding the Jackson/Timberlake Performance at Super Bowl XXXVIII," talked about what "Nipplegate" and the career trajectories of Jackson and Timberlake says about privilege. The move "reminds audiences, at least in passing, that his role in the 2004 controversy was minimal, insignificant, and/or manufactured by his performing partner," Holland said. To suggest Timberlake gets a pass, she told us at the time, because "modern audiences have a higher threshold for 'inappropriate' behavior and/or Timberlake has 'grown up' significantly during the past decade [is] problematic because those rationales have not been extended to Jackson."

Over the past year, Jackson has toured the country and put out new music. She's been honored by Billboard and Black Girls Rock and appeared on magazine covers. But as reports suggest, the strain on her career in the early 2000s potentially inflicted by Moonves' alleged actions are immeasurable.