Fox News, Idiots

The Fox News Channel nearly sued the makers of "The Simpsons." Yes, the same Simpsons that are aired on Fox.

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..."

Really now, to all those sincere folks that really want to believe in the intellectual honesty of Fox News: wake up! Even the most inattentive ear to laws of trademark, copyright and defamation know of the term parody. One would assume that after being laughed out of court in the Franken 'Fair and Balanced' case, Fox, too, might have some understanding of the concept.

"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," [Groening] said.

Pity the television watcher that thinks the news reported on the Simpsons is real. Yes, Kent Brockman has an air of officialdom, doesn't he? Especially in quotes like these: "Tonight on eye on Springfield we meet a man who has been hiccuping for forty five years."
I shouldn't kid. In point of fact, Fox may have a point--insofar as Fox asserts that the people that watch Fox News might be confused by the Simpsons "news." Note, the study finding that Fox News watchers had the most misperceptions about the facts involved in leading up to the Iraq war. Perhaps these Fox News viewers would take serious such claims, purported to Fox News, that Democrats cause cancer.