As any regular visitor to Blogistan is aware by now, News Corp (the company that owns Fox News) is suing Al Franken, in what has to be the most blatant harassment lawsuit in history, over his new book, Lies and the Lying Liars et al. That this suit might be taken seriously by even our judicial system, where Justice Antonin "What Constitution" Scalia can be part of SCotUS, is frightening enough. What concerns me, however, is the implication that Fox News is still considered balanced or fair by anyone.
Is there anyone left in this country who hasn't heard the stories of Fox reporters being "taught" how to put a conservative spin on stories? What about the lawsuit against Fox, where two ex-reporters accused the company of deliberately revising a story to protect another company -- and their defense was that they didn't have a legal responsibility to tell the truth? (They won that one, horrifically enough.) And of course, there's the all-Bush all the time phenomenon. Certainly, people who only get their news from Fox (and wingnut radio, of course) won't know, but they're virtually hopeless anyway.
And yet here we are, where parody -- PARODY! -- is being assaulted based on the presence of three dirt-common words and a similarity in cover style. Parody, incidentally, is one of the most heavily protected forms of free speech/press in American history. It was considered so important to discourse that the great and powerful not be immune to the wit of others that satire has long been enshrined in First Amendment cases.
What makes this case really funny, aside from the huge free burst of publicity thanks to the O'Riled Factor, is that few broadcasters have ever needed a good puncturing more than Faux News. With their rabid pseudo-patriotism, frothing partisanship, and total inability to stop taking themselves seriously, News Corp (now there's a name that makes satire obsolete) and its spooky subsidiary are prime targets for the razor-sharp instincts of satirists like Al Franken.
Except Fox might actually win this lawsuit, and there's nothing funny about that. And that's the most chilling effect of all.
(/) Roland
Fair But Not Balanced
No comments:
Post a Comment