sophiaserpentia | (no subject)

Current Mood: disgusted, but then amused, but concerned for friends in Calif.

(no subject)

Remember laughing over the hoax a couple of weeks ago, about Metallica supposedly suing another group for using the E and F chords?

Truth is indeed stranger than fiction:

Fox News sues Al Franken for using the phrase "fair and balanced" in the subtitle of his new book.

Maybe Shakespeare was onto something about that "killing all the lawyers" thing. Well, maybe not all of them, some of them are alright. But a culling may be in order.

Edit: Truth is stranger than fiction department two:

The Game Show Network has announced a special for October 1:

Who Wants to be Governor of California?

Five candidates will compete for a campaign contribution of $21,200.

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Maybe CBS should sue Fox for using the word "News"?

As far as killing the lawyers... when I'm Emperor, there will be a special Court of Appeals for Stupid Lawsuits, with judges empowered to "terminate with extreme prejudice" any lawyer who brings a case this moronic to court.

Hrm... maybe I'll handle those cases myself.

LOL...
I just saw my Comcast headlines make a comment on what Arnold said on the late night talk show.... "Running for this spot was the hardest decision I ever had to make... outside of getting a bikini wax in 1978" ;)

Actually, having watched Fox News quite a bit, and listened to talk radio, they've made quite an effort to establish "Fair and Ballanced" as a trademark and for brand recognition. I'm not sure I like the laws that say such a phrase can be a trademark, but since it can, Fox News has basically no choice but to sue.

They won't win the suit, and they know it. The book is satire, and satire is given special treatment under trademark law. But if they don't defend the trademark, then the next upstart can use the phrase, and they've got very little leg to stand on left because they let this go unchallenged. (for a trademark to be enforcable, it must be challenged in all cases of infringement, not selectively)

But Fox news is neither fair NOR balanced. Can false advertising be considered a trademark?

Well, that's obviously your opinion. Unfortunately, most people today (and I fall into this, too) tend to think something is fair and/or ballanced if it fits with their political world view.

As far as facts go, in my opinion watching the various networks over the course of the conflict in Iraq, Fox did a better job of keeping the editorializing out of the news segments than any of the other networks (including CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC and CNN). Admittedly, Fox's opinion shows slant to the right, but so what?

Fox definitely has some decent coverage, but everything about it is slanted to the right, from the morning show commentators attacking "liberals" to Bill O'Reilley.

Again, so? There apears to be a market for it, so they're satisfying the demand. And as I said, I don't see much of a bias in the actual news coverage. Though that may be because whatever bias is there mirrors my own.

This is quite like Spike Lee suing Spike TV.

thank you for your concern, but i'm afraid it comes too late.

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