Venal Scene

Thursday, September 04, 2003

I linked to Brian Flemming's blog a while back but forgot to mention it. You should check it out for his new one-act, Fair & Balanced, available on line (the link is on his site). It's all about Bill O'Reilly and the dimwitted lawsuit his employers engaged in. I'm going to buy and read as soon as I get back from vacation, which starts in a few hours. I'll post on it next week.

It's a little late in blog-time to be commenting on the O'Reilly-Franken lawsuit, and I don't use this blog as a straight commentary. But I must say that, until recently, I was baffled by Fox's behavior. Franken was so clearly protected by the first amendment, it seemed to me that the network was being insanely bone-headed, even for a network. Despite pundits warning of out-of-control intellectual property laws that could make the suit legit, I thought it was a dead mule. I thought three things would happen:

1. The suit would be laughed out of court. It was.

2. O'Reilly and Fox would get mocked, mercilessly, throughout the globe. They were.

3. People would write "Fair and Balanced" on their toilet paper, just so they could wipe on it. Don't know if that came true. Don't want to.

And surely, if a chimp like me could see all that coming, the smartypants lawyers at Fox could too, right? Right?!?

I read an article in the last issue of The New Yorker about the suit. The author, Ben McGrath, speculated that the whole suit was Fox's attempt to placate the wounded pride of its star, Bill O'Reilly. It's the first explanation I've seen that makes sense out of the whole thing. It doesn't require a mass case of stupidty on the part of Fox, just a mass case of greed and toadyism.

BIG CHIEF LAWYER: But, Mr. Murdoch, O'Reilly wants the complaint to state that Al Franken a "ninny doo-doo head, no backs."

MR. MURDOCH: Whatever he wants! Just make sure he's on at eight!

This I can buy. Or maybe I'm naive. Maybe they all just had honey-roast peanuts for brains.

posted by Dan 11:26 AM
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