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Fox News Considered Suing Fox's "The Simpsons"
ZeDanimal writes "The Simpsons' pooh-bah Matt Groening said in an NPR interview this week that the Fox News Channel considered legal action against the show for its parody of the station's news ticker. Broadcast, of course, by Fox Entertainment, the episode that raised the ire of the "Fair and Balanced" Fox News crew was Krusty For Congress, which mocked the perceived rightward-leanings of the channel with pseudo-news items such as "Do Democrats cause cancer?" and "Oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple" scrolling across the bottom of the screen. Guess the powers-that-be learned something from the Al Franken affair... or maybe they just feared getting into a popularity contest with the likes of the inanimate carbon rod."
The news ticker belongs to one company? They all look the same to me. Anyway what is fox doing sueing one of their best shows?
-Seriv
The headline should read: "Faux News Considered Suing Fox's "The Simpsons""
It's perfectly cromulent for FOX to protect their trademarks. And oil slicks DO keep seals young and supple by preventing them from getting old.
NRA4Ever!
I don't get it. Fox doesn't sue someone and its news.
How about a list of everyone they haven't sued?
Damn, must be a slow news day.
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
"Now Fox has a new rule that we can't do those little fake news crawls on the bottom of the screen in a cartoon because it might confuse the viewers into thinking it's real news," he said.
I'm at a loss for words here. I really am.
When life hands you lemons, grab the salt and pass the tequilla...
Yeah, because their are so many news shows that are animated. I can understand the possible confusion.
The Tools Of Ignorance wanna be a tool?
What is everything comming to the Fox company is sueing another Fox company. What is next Microsoft Office sueing Microsoft Windows for including "notepad" in the Windows software. I mean come on the Simpsons make fun of everybody, I think if Fox News starts going down the road of the RIAA, we are going to loose one of the better news channels.
Just watch any day of the week and see for yourself.
It's true!
Really...
was over copyright infringement. All of those crawls were actual Fox News crawls that just hadn't been used yet. Because they are Fair and Balanced(tm), they are not bound by "journalistic" concerns about timeliness, relevancy or facts. They write their news(tm) days, weeks, months in advance, just waiting for the right moment to announce it. Obviously, someone from the The Simpsons snuck in and pilfered valuable Fox News content.
People are finding "The Simpsons" to be a more reliable news source. Apparently, the only people who actually watch Fox News are convalescents who can't reach the remote control (whoever left the TV on should be punished severely).
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
I guess Fox'd win the case easily :) I wonder if they'd have to pay themselves damages.
Fox income = damages - lawyer fees
Fox loss = damages
Fox net gain = - lawyer fees
That's one hell of a business strategy.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
Well, in fairness, we are talking about Fox News viewers.
Forget the viewers, have you seen Fox News recently? Their fair and balanced reporting standards would be easily satisfied by a debate between Krusty the Clown and Duff Man.
The ______ Agenda
Fox and Fox both stand to gain from a fake news story on Fox about Fox versus Fox. This Fox against Fox story gains Fox coverage from Fox and other non-Fox media. I'm suspicious that this Fox stunt is just a way to get Fox attention and to boost the popularity of Fox News and a slowly declining Fox show. Maybe I'm just suspicious of Fox and Fox, though.
Too bad SCO doesn't follow Fox's footsteps and start suing itself for license violations.
I can totally see how it could be construed as very confusing, what with all those four fingered yellow cartoon people walking around and all.
They did institute a new rule that the Simpsons, or any other non-news show on Fox, could not use an onscreen information scroll lest the audience become confused and think it was actual news.
Aren't they afraid that the Fox news ticker itself might cause confusion and be mistaken for actual news?
Does that mean Kent Brockman's out of a job?
Television shows, and more generally, companies are not, I repeat, NOT citizens!
Boy, you're in for a shock when you get to page 2 of your Corporate Law textbook...
In the simpsons intro when the little girl is scanned on the cash register, the total due window even says "NRA Rules". Matt is a Conservative... The fact that he pokes fun at his own party is nice to see. Too bad the Libs. can't follow the humor...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - The Celtic - =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Wednesday night on The Daily Show, Norm Macdonald and John Stewart were talking about how the scrolling tickers were originally used to convey important information about "the war on terror", but now that there wasn't so much news, they were being filled with fluff. John Stewart came up with the zaniest example: during a newscast about how Saddam's sons had just been killed, a ticker scrolling across the bottom stated that Bianca had declared that she didn't like the word "bootylicious".
WMBC freeform/independent online radio.
1. What is you IQ?
subnormal
2. What is your primary source for news?
slashdot
Not everyone who watches Fox News is a conservative zealot.
This is true. I know some people who watch it purely for the unintentional humor value.
And not every conservative zealot watches Fox News.
Yes, some of them read the Washington Times or Newsmax instead, or prefer their Ann Coulter books to television news.
It just drives me crazy when people are pigeonholed as being a moron based on one simple aspect of personal preference.
Unfortunately, in this case, it's absolutely true.
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
I find this entire thread extremely funny.