Some Days The Good Guys Win One

A lot of bloggers (including your humble host) have covered the outrageous harassment of Al Franken, namely Faux News' utterly baseless lawsuit regarding his book, Lies and the Lying Liars et. al.

Well, it seems the judge agrees with us:

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said Fox's claim was "wholly without merit, both factually and legally."

While Fox could theoretically continue their suit "on its merit," considering the judge's statement, proving that it has any is very much an uphill battle. The left side of the blogosphere is already muttering that Penguin might be able to countersue for its legal fees based on the Fox suit's absurdity.

So, let's recap: Fox gives "Lies" more press than Al Franken could have possibly bought. Sales go through the roof. The text of their own complaint proves how staggeringly pathetic they are -- they described Franken as (among other things) "unstable," "shrill," and "deranged" in a legal document. The injunction is thrown out. The judge calls the suit meritless. Penguin might not even have to pay its lawyers. The Foxholes demonstrate their utter folly at the same time they prove their utter contempt for the actual concepts of truth, justice and freedom.

Life is good. :-D

On the other hand, maybe they need better representation. According to the same AP article quoted above, Judge Chin asked Faux lawyer Dorie Hansworth if she really thought that someone could mistake "Lies" for a Faux product. Her response:

"To me, it's quite ambiguous as to what the message is," she said. "It's a deadly serious cover ... This is much too subtle to be considered a parody."

Remember, we're talking about a book very clearly titled "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right," with Al Franken (that legendary bastion of Fox News media) plastered all over the cover.

I could not make this stuff up. Then again, maybe the article misspelled her name. Since Murdoch is Australian, I decided to look for likely women in the area named Dori/Dory/Dorie that might be their real lawyer. In the spirit of the "seriousness" of Al Franken's book, I offer the following incriminating image as a theory of the real identity of Fox News' legal eagle:



Personally, I think there's something's fishy about the whole thing. It could be that Faux is really trying to gull Penguin into thinking they're completely at sea in this fight, then school the book company in legal warfare. Still, Franken can shell them easily, given the judge's seal of approval on the book. After all, Fox is just being crabby, and that's never enough to make a real satirist clam up.

(/) Roland
Cruisin' Through The Gulf Stream...For The Halibut
(with apologies to Pixar and Kip Addotta) :-)

Update: I have tracked down the identity of the "Dory" in the above picture, and I would like to apologize both to her and the entire Finding Nemo family. After spending approximately 15 minutes studying her body of work, I came to the conclusion that the Dory depicted above is far too erudite, intelligent, and observant to make the sort of fantastic logical fallacies rife in the Fox complaint. Again, my deepest apologies to Dory, and best wishes for her continued success in acting.