Fox almost sues itself: Fox News vs. The Simpsons
 

Is Lionel Hutz running the legal department over at Fox? :blah

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...n_031029172820

Fox nearly sued itself over 'Simpsons' parody: Matt Groening
Wed Oct 29,12:28 PM ET Add Offbeat - AFP to My Yahoo!

NEW YORK (AFP) - Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel threatened to sue the makers of "The Simpsons" over a parody of the channel's right-wing political stance, the creator of the hit US television show has claimed.

In an interview this week with National Public Radio, Matt Groening recalled how the news channel had considered legal action, despite the fact that "The Simpsons" is broadcast on sister network, Fox Entertainment.

According to Groening, Fox took exception took a Simpsons' version of the Fox News rolling news ticker which parodied the channel's anti-Democrat stance, with headlines like "Do Democrats Cause Cancer?"

"Fox fought against it and said they would sue the show," Groening said.

"We called their bluff because we didn't think Rupert Murdoch would pay for Fox to sue itself. So, we got away with it."

Other satirical Fox news bulletins featured in the show included: "Study: 92 per cent of Democrats are gay... JFK posthumously joins Republican Party... Oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple..."

While the lawsuit never materialized, Groening said some action was taken.

"Now Fox has a new rule that we can't do those little fake news crawls on the bottom of the screen in a cartoon because it might confuse the viewers into thinking it's real news," he said.

"The Simpsons," featuring the dysfunctional family of patriarch Homer Simpson and his rowdy brood, is now in its 14th year and is expected to become the longest-running situation comedy in US history in 2005.

damn, i miss all the cool episodes.. is it on a download yet?
sometimes i wish i watched a few shows regularly..
i guess the few shows id like to see now are simpsons and the west wing.. i hear they cover some interesting topics but havnt seen it. damn tv.. i keep tuning into shows i fear so i can understand who the hell hates the 'liberals' so much :/

Oh sure, insult the viewers' intelligence to spare Fox News's dignity.

I'll bet that Fox just saw what a success Al Franken's book was after they tried to sue, so they figured they could sue their own shows to boost the ratings.



Now if the lawsuit had been because the Simpsons are no longer funny, then Fox would have had a case.