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Sat. Aug 23, 2003

A Fair and Balanced Verdict

A Fair and Balanced Verdict – A week ago Friday, while talking about the Fox vs. Franken lawsuit, I remarked, “The legal definition of ‘fair use’ specifically exempts works of parody or satire from this kind of prosecution. As some judge will surely tell you most any day now.”

Friday was that day: “A federal judge in Manhattan told Fox News yesterday that it had to learn how to take a joke.”

Final score pending appeal:
Al Franken – 1
Fox News – Far less than 0

The judge called it an easy case, and then piled on: “Calling the motion ‘wholly without merit, both factually and legally,’ the judge, Denny Chin of United States District Court, said that a person would have to be ‘completely dense’ not to realize the cover was a joke, and that trademark protection for the phrase ‘Fair and Balanced’ was unrealistic because the words are so commonly used.”

Golly, I don’t speak legalese, but I think that judge just called Thin Skinned Billy O’Reilly “completely dense.”

In other remarks, he was more direct: “Parody is a form of artistic expression protected by the First Amendment. The keystone to parody is imitation. In using the mark, Mr. Franken is clearly mocking Fox [...] Of course, it is ironic that a media company that should be fighting for the First Amendment is trying to undermine it.”

His Honor barely scratches the surface of the irony that is “Fox News.” Spokesperson Paul Schur said “We don’t care if it’s Al Franken, Al Lewis or Weird Al Yankovic. We’re here to protect our trademark and our talent.”

Funny how he named three people known for comedy and parody, which the court just made clear is protected speech (and quit pickin’ on Grandpa Munster). Plus, the judge said your trademark is weak and unrealistic. And let’s not talk about your talent, OK? They’re looking a bit blurred and tarnished today.

This lawsuit was intended to stop Franken’s book. As Mr. Rogers might ask, “Can you say ‘completely counterproductive’?” “His book had been scheduled for release in September, but the publicity caused the publisher to print an extra 50,000 copies, for a total of 435,000, and to roll the book out on Thursday. After the ruling yesterday, it moved to the No. 1 spot on the best-seller list at amazon. com.”

Instead of the intended effect, in a mere ten days, the lawsuit has caused this book to be released a month faster, and guaranteed it will debut as a best seller. I swear, this had to have been a CNN covert operation. Surely, to end up looking this foolish, there had to be some outside interference. Some kind of plot.

Franken’s appearing on Crossfire on CNN Monday and Tuesday.

I rest my case.