Fair, Balanced, and Litigious

Julian Sanchez | June 24, 2003

The folks at Fox have threatened legal action against the makers of a parody T-shirt that reads "Faux News: We Distort, You Comply" in a Fox-like logo. This sort of parody is pretty close to the core of "fair use"—well, that or a whole lot of T-shirt makers are in trouble—but it does make me wonder: I own one of those shirts; if I stroll by the D.C. bureau of Fox wearing it, will they sic one of their legal mutts on me?

Comments

|6.24.03 @ 7:32AM|#

Seth Godin preaches that being parody-worthy means you matter to enough people that the act of making fun of you means something too.

Fox . . ur Faux, should pause to make sure their not taking themselves a bit too seriously.

L.Weel|6.24.03 @ 10:22AM|#

If it were funny, I wouldn't take it too seriously either. But when you consider the business they're in (to bring you the NEWS) and then hearing that what their logo stands for "distorts" as well, and that what they have to tell you is FALSE -- well, that's a different matter altogether!

faux (adj.) -- Artificial; fake: [from Old French fals. See FALSE.]

How would Coca-Cola or Pepsi like it if a (faux) logo of theirs proclaimed "Contaminant" or "Poison," hmm?

|6.25.03 @ 1:38AM|#

Gregory Litchfield wrote:

"Would Greta van Sustern be considered a "legal mutt"?"

She'd only go after Julian if his t-shirt mocked Scientology.

|6.25.03 @ 2:33AM|#

Greta's in a UFO cult?

|6.25.03 @ 2:37AM|#

Parody is protected speech. Faux News should lose this one.

In the real world, famous people and corporations can be mocked and made fun of. If you can't play with the big kids, you should stay away.

PS I have my doubts about L. Weel's commentary. I don't think Faux News is in the news business at all
--they are in the regurgitation business.

L.Weel|6.25.03 @ 3:53AM|#

Strange ...

I never saw anyone making fun of the network alphabet soup before Fox came along.

(ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, NPR)

I wonder why not.

Julian|6.25.03 @ 3:59AM|#

Because Fox deserves it a lot more.

L.Weel|6.25.03 @ 4:56AM|#

I guess you're right, Julian. If some comes along and tells you the naked truth (for a change) they deserve to be pummeled, right?

|6.25.03 @ 5:21AM|#

yes, because the chimpy-channel (faux) is pro-war and that is all that mattered.

personally i prefer Ha'aretz, that is way more fair and balenced than Faux.

Warren|6.25.03 @ 6:00AM|#

Yes, all the other channels are contemptible in their bias, but FOX is downright evil in it's bias and thus more deserving of ridicule.

L.Weel|6.25.03 @ 7:06AM|#

So you mean to tell me that the network channels were ANTI-WAR and NOT downright evil in their bias when Clinton bombed the living daylights out of the Balkans?

Let's not do this as well as "fair & balanced" in the same breath, shall we?

anti-war|6.25.03 @ 8:07AM|#

faux is baaad, faux is baaaad

Keith|6.25.03 @ 8:28AM|#

L Weel -

Thanks for reminding me; in the vending machine room of the dorm I lived in in college, someone had painted a mural depicting "Coca-Cancer" over an hourglass shaped bottle in the coca cola script.

Hee hee hee. Collge students are awesome at throwing mud in the eye of monolithic organizations which nearly always deserve to be raked over the coals by folk art, Faux included; but you know, I don't think this had a whit of impact on coke consumption in the dorm.

Kevin Carson|6.25.03 @ 9:13AM|#

L. Weel:

It's funny because it's true. Come on--Larry Flynt got away with a Bacardi ad parody saying Jerry Fallwell got it on with his mother in an outhouse. Is this even remotely as bad?

Fox News is a "public figure," and only the lowest-grade moron would think the T-shirts were authorized by Fox. So what Fox really wants is to be legally protected from the ridicule it deserves.

|6.25.03 @ 9:35AM|#

Copyright law allows for a product to be completely eviscerated through parody or criticism. The only thing that's not allowed is destruction of an original by a copy that's stealing the market for the original. There's a name for that, and normally I'd be able to think of it. But it's early. Julian, email me back about the "give me a break" segments.

bill o'reilly's dog|6.25.03 @ 9:52AM|#

does "threatening legal action" mean squat? every company says that. whatever.

if the courts side with faux that would be an injustice. of course the peanut gallery hear makes this out to be yet another action by the vast evil right-wing conspiricy!

L.Weel|6.25.03 @ 10:04AM|#

Silence ... (It's been 2 hours)

Hmmm.

OK. So I ask again: May we also see some T-shirts mocking the likes of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, NPR?

Should be easy pickins.

fredH|6.25.03 @ 11:14AM|#

Fox has no chance of masking a case here. This is obviously legitimate parody. But if I understand trademark law correctly, their lawyers are required at least to make a pro forma objection in these situations. Otherwise after enough incidents, they could be seen as not defending their trademark and thus lose it.

|6.25.03 @ 11:16AM|#

"if I stroll by the D.C. bureau of Fox wearing it, will they sic one of their legal mutts on me?"

Would Greta van Sustern be considered a "legal mutt"?

dhex|6.25.03 @ 11:22AM|#

err...i've seen more than a few shirts mocking CNN (PNN is only the latest). and i remember a shirt a few years back with a WWII photo of a bunch of them funny-lookin' nazi banners with the logos of a bunch of major media companies photoshopped in and the slogan "the gang's all here!" underneath it. never did find out who did it...

fox news is my favorite tv sitcom. all that yelling reminds me of Roseanne.

dhex|6.25.03 @ 11:25AM|#

speaking of mocking scientology (or hailing it, depending on how you look at it)

http://www.cafeshops.com/asccharlatan.1431703?zoom=yes#zoom

HH|6.25.03 @ 12:06PM|#

So am I to understand that Fox deserves for one of its programs to be compared to Hitler? The idea of Godwin's law still hasn't sunk in to a lot of folks.

dhex|6.25.03 @ 12:54PM|#

cheap shot or not, that o'reilly youth t shirt is fucking hilarious. i think i'm gonna buy one.

besides, Fox is a company, not a living entity - it doesn't have feelings!

R.Hubbard|6.26.03 @ 2:45AM|#

Hey, I may have ascended, but I'm certainly NOT a charlatan.

|6.30.03 @ 2:09AM|#

L. Weel: If you never saw anyone make fun of a network before Faux, YOU NEED TO WATCH DAVID LETTERMAN, who has built many a joke about TV networks (including those that carry his show).