Les Moonves reportedly tried to ruin Janet Jackson's career after her Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction"

HuffPost

The singer beccame a "years-long fixation" for the CBS boss after the 2004 Nipplegate incident with Justin Timberlake at the Super Bowl halftime show, which resulted in a $550,000 FCC fine for CBS. The Huffington Post's Yashar Ali reports that although Jackson and Timberlake said the incident was an accident, Moonves was "convinced it wasn’t a malfunction, but rather an intentional bid to stir up controversy. Moonves has been open about the fact that the incident caused him embarrassment, and he told sources who spoke to me that Jackson, in his mind, was not sufficiently repentant. Moonves banned Jackson and Timberlake from the 2004 Grammys broadcast airing on CBS the week after the Super Bowl." Timberlake apologized and was allowed to perform at the Grammys. But Moonves was "furious" that Jackson didn't also apologize, reports Ali. As a result, Ali reports, "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."