Posted on 08/22/2003 3:11:06 PM PDT by demlosers
In the matter of Fox vs. Franken, Fox News Channel claims that comedian-commentator Al Franken is "shrill and unstable" and "increasingly unfunny."
Franken, in turn, says Bill O'Reilly, Fox's biggest star, should be called "Bill O' Lie-lly" and spoofs its slogan, "We Report, You Decide" as "They Distort, We Deride."
At the center of all this name-calling and elbow-throwing, which has spilled over from publishing into television and the legal system, is Franken's new book, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" (Dutton, $24.95).
Fox filed suit last week, saying it copyrighted its trademark "Fair and Balanced" in 1998 and asking for unspecified damages. Oral arguments are to begin today in U.S. District Court in New York.
The result of the lawsuit so far, though, has been to give Franken's book a much higher profile. After the suit was filed, "Lies" jumped into Amazon.com's Top 10 (by Thursday, it was No. 3), and Penguin, the publisher, ordered an extra 40,000 copies and rushed the book into stores. It was supposed to come out Sept. 22 but started arriving at Atlanta bookstores Thursday.
Atlanta-based Chapter 11 bookstores doubled its buy, said Vivian Lawand, advertising director for the chain. Stores have been receiving lots of calls about the book, and the Ansley Mall location plans a side-by-side display of Franken's book and O'Reilly's 2002 bestseller, "The No Spin Zone."
Personal animosity between O'Reilly and Franken boiled over at a booksellers' convention in Los Angeles earlier this summer, when the two appeared on a joint panel to promote their books.
Franken publicly took O'Reilly to task for saying his previous show, "Inside Edition," had won two Peabody Awards (it won a Polk Award instead, and after O'Reilly had left) and tempers at the head table flared into a shouting match. A delayed broadcast of the confrontation then was aired on CSPAN2.
Franken, the former "Saturday Night Live" writer-performer and author of "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations" has greeted the lawsuit as if it were a joke, saying in a statement that he has trademarked the word "funny," so that Fox cannot charge him with being "unfunny."
But First Amendment and copyright lawyers are paying attention to the case, which is part of a growing litigation trend that includes Spike Lee's suit against Spike TV and the Margaret Mitchell estate's suit against the book "The Wind Done Gone." The Authors Guild has filed a brief on Franken's side, pointing out that books such as "Prozac Nation" and "The Devil Wears Prada" used trademarks in their titles.
Conservatives will need some Prozac if they pick up Franken's book, which is a 379-page attack on Republicans (especially President Bush and his policies), Fox and its personalities such as O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, and recent books by conservatives that allege a leftist media bias.
Of the liberal side, Franken writes, "Our attack dogs are a scrawny, underfed pack of mutts that spend half the time chasing their own tails and sniffing each other's butts. The right, by contrast, appears to have a well-oiled puppy mill for pit bulls, bred to kill and trained to go for the jugular."
He also shows a lot of interest in Georgia politics specifically, writing about the Saxby Chambliss vs. Max Cleland Senate race and role of the Georgia state flag in the 2002 gubernatorial election.
"Lies" is part of the growing politicization and polarization of the bestseller lists.
Publishers have discovered that readers can't get enough of ideologues, many of whom have used TV talk shows as a springboard.
Thus, Ann Coulter's "Treason: Liberal Treachery From the Cold War to the War on Terrorism" is No. 4 on the New York Times bestseller list.
Also on the list are "Stupid White Men" by liberal documentary-maker Michael Moore; "Off With Their Heads" by Fox News analyst Dick Morris; and an anti-Clinton history, "Derelicition of Duty," by Robert Patterson.
Hillary Rodham Clinton's "Living History," while more an autobiography than any of those, certainly was greeted by her opponents as just another ideological salvo.
Due out next month is another O'Reilly book, "Who's Looking Out for You?" and liberal columnist Molly Ivins' "Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America."
Bob Dilenschneider, founder of New York public relations firm the Dilenschneider Group, said it's a win-win situation PR-wise. Franken's book gets a bonanza of pre-release buzz and Fox sends out two messages: Don't mess with Fox, and we protect our people.
That may or may not be fair, but at least it's balanced.
I didn't read Moore's book, or Franken's, or any other book mentioned. I find this whole thing to be an extremely trivial. Although, it does kinda make me want to see excerpts from Franken's book.
Just because they can't keep their nose out of each other's butts we're supposed to listen to them???? This guy is fruit!
And they always say bad things about the Hogs too.
The only thing al franken has that is even close to being correct.
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