Al Franken is a pretty funny guy. He better be. He’s a comedian.
Many people know Franken from his work on Saturday Night Live, where he played Stewart Smalley, a self-help guru and graduate of many 12-step programs. He was a writer for the program for almost 20 years, and his tenure ended in 1995, which is also around the time SNL stopped being funny.
After SNL, Franken thrust himself into the political arena as a commentator. He’s written a few books, and to summarize his views, Franken should be imagined as a Bill O’Reilly of the left – only poignant and funny.
A few weeks ago, Fox News filed a motion to block the publication and distribution of Franken’s new book, “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.” The book, which I have not read, supposedly pokes fun at Bush, Cheney, O’Reilly and political author Ann Coulter, among others.
Now, Fox owns the trademark to the phrase “Fair and Balanced,” but trademarked phrases (especially weak ones) may be duplicated in the form of ridicule, and in the case of Franken’s book, satire. Since Franken was clearly not trying to rip off Fox and use its trademark to sell his books, the judge dismissed the case.
One of Fox’s arguments in the case was that their audience may be misled by the title, and believe the book was endorsed by Fox itself.
I hope they really didn’t believe that.
But if Fox thinks their audience is too stupid to realize that a book by a liberal author is not endorsed by the corporation, it wouldn’t deviate from the network’s tradition. Fox News is loved by many Americans because it usually tells them what they’d like to hear and how they’d like to hear it.
I remember watching CNN a few weeks ago as I ate a slab of steak for lunch. The anchor reported that U.N. inspectors were to tour Iran’s nuclear facilities to ensure the country was not producing or preparing to manufacture nuclear weapons. Immediately after the report, the anchor had a discussion with two political affiliates about ways to diffuse the situation. One of the commentators encouraged diplomatic methods to resolve the situation, for a war on Iran would be less supported at home and abroad that the one in Iraq. The other commentator either encouraged outright military conquest or strategic strikes to weaken the infrastructure of the country to lead the way for an incited population to overthrow the current reigning mullahs.
Some time later, I was watching Fox (that’s right, I watch a lot of Fox news. I’m a news junkie, and Fox bills itself as a news channel) and eating raisins. After a time, the anchor ran the story on the weapons inspectors in Iran. He then turned to a sole commentator to discuss the matter further. Little to my surprise, he was the very same commentator arguing in favor for military conquest in Iran on CNN a few days earlier. Fox simply hadn’t even taken the time to provide a counterpoint.
At that moment, a chilling thought ran through my mind: a lot of people use Fox as their only news source.
And since so many people get their news from Fox, they may want to reevaluate what journalism means. The job of a news corporation is not to wave the country’s flag in the corner of the television screen. The Iraqis used to do that. The job of a news corporation is to report news fairly and accurately – and as objectively as possible.
Upon the conclusion of the case, Franken granted CNN a brief phone interview in which he stated a few things quite efficiently: “The irony upon irony of this lawsuit was great. First, Fox having the trademark ‘fair and balanced’ – a network which is anything but fair and balanced. Then there’s the irony of a news organization trying to suppress free speech.”
I can appreciate the humor there. Can you?