One of my favorite Simpsons episodes of the last couple of years was when Krusty gets elected to Congress on a platform of diverting air traffic away from the Simpsons’ home.
The classic moment of the episode was an extended parody of Fox News Channel’s obvious right-wing tilt. (click here for a screenshot in case you’ve forgotten the episode)
In the parody, the show mocks the news ticker at the bottom of the FNC broadcast by including a spoof on the kind of conservative items the network shows every day. For example, if you watched closely, you’d notice that the ticker had items such as “Study: 92 percent of Democrats are gay” … “Oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple” … “Do Democrats cause cancer? Find out at FoxNews.com.”
If you missed it, trust me, it was hilarious. Executives at Fox News, however, weren’t amused.
As the Dallas Morning News’ Jim Frisinger reported yesterday (via Atrios), Simpsons creator Matt Groening acknowledged yesterday that Fox News threatened to sue the program over the use of the Fox News name and logo.
You’ll recall that Fox News sued Al Franken over his use of the phrase “fair and balanced,” arguing that book buyers might see the cover of his Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them and believe that the book was published by the FNC. As the network’s lawsuit put it, Franken’s use of “fair and balanced” was “likely to cause confusion among the public about whether Fox News has authorized or endorsed the book and about whether Franken is affiliated with FNC.”
As Frisinger explained, Fox News was prepared to make a similar charge against The Simpsons, arguing that television viewers “might be confused that they were watching real news.”
That’s right. An animated sitcom featuring a cartoon clown running for Congress may have led some people to think they were actually watching the Fox News Channel. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about what that says about FNC’s opinion of its network and its viewers.
Groening believes financial interests deterred the lawsuit. Considering the Simpsons’ network, it would have been a lawsuit of Fox vs. Fox.