The FCC is frequently guilty of blindly adhering to the interests of entertainment conglomerates, having permitted a level of media consolidation which has been devastating to the television industry as a whole.

Yet whenever they strong arm major media companies, it’s for all the wrong reasons. This prudish $1.4 million penalty against ABC for a shot of a nudity on a 2003 episode of “NYPD Blue” is unreasonable and silly.

The FCC is fortunate government fines are not subject to the same requirements as civil lawsuits, which require proving damages. Because nobody could reasonably claim the network harmed anybody by revealing a side-view of a woman’s butt and breast. (Oh, but the FCC does try, noting a young actor about 7 or 8 years old was on the “Blue” set. Surely today he’s curled in a corner somewhere, catatonic and traumatized).

The repeated claim of the FCC is that the scene was worthy being singled out for government fines because it was “titillating.” Agreeing with this logic requires investing in several assumptions: That titillation is inherently harmful, that large swaths of television programming isn’t already titillating, that the “Blue” shot was more titillating than anything etc.

When consumers can find any and all forms of nudity online faster than you can finish reading this sentence, to punish ABC for an five-year-old ass-glimpse makes the FCC — as well as the broadcast networks — seem like hopelessly outdated institutions, clinging to their nostalgic illusion that they’re still in control of the consumer entertainment experience.