Click Here

Capitol Hill Blue is a not-for-profit, non-commercial experiment in on-line journalism published as an information resource for our readers. All material is © 2006 Capitol Hill Blue. For more information, please check out our FAQ. We take your privacy seriously at Capitol Hill Blue.
Home / The Rant / ReaderRant

That's Entertainment


Unfair and unbalanced
By JAY AMBROSE
Aug 31, 2003, 18:35
Email this article
 Printer friendly page

Al Franken's idea of humor and political incisiveness seems to be to say people are liars and to point to a well-known conservative as fat, but if that sort of juvenilia is something short of praiseworthy, so was a Fox News lawsuit.

The cable channel took umbrage at the title of a Franken book, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right." Fox claimed in court that it used the phrase "fair and balanced" to promote its shows and that it therefore belonged to Fox and should not be used by Franken.

Oh, come on. The phrase is a common part of the English language, and using a lawsuit as a means of hitting back in political debate is despicable. The suit has been dropped now, thanks to a discouraging judge, but the fact it was filed can hardly enhance the reputation of a news outlet that has actually done some first-rate work.

A better idea in the future would be for Fox News to relax and enjoy the joke of another celebrity pretending to know something about politics.

© Copyright 2006 by Capitol Hill Blue
We welcome reader comments:
Comment directly on this story in our blog or discuss other issues in ReaderRant.

Top of Page

That's Entertainment
Latest Headlines

Critics step up pressure on ABC to dump 9/11 'fiction'
Mike Douglas dies on 81st birthday
Checkbook journalism
Maybe It's Time to Just Suspend Political Talk Shows
Porno Drives Technology Development
Unfair and unbalanced

Sign up for our Daily Newsletter mailing list!


Untitled Document