You know, a few weeks ago I asked if I could sue Ann Coulter for calling me a traitor. Then Fox News turns around and sues Al Franken for using “fair and balanced” in the subtitle of his upcoming book (which promptly shot up to number one in Amazon.com preorders). I leave it as an exercise to the reader to connect the dots.
By the way, since I have some small experience in these matters, Franken’s lawyers are going to have to be careful how they defend themselves here. If they say their use of “fair and balanced” is satire, then they could get in trouble because the Supreme Court ruled a while back that only parody, not satire, qualified under First Amendment protection. (The case in question involved someone spoofing Dr. Seuss’ writing style for a picture book on the O.J. Simpson trial; I forget the exact details.) Of course, putting Fox News on trial themselves to determine whether or not they are “fair and balanced” would be the trial of the century, but I doubt that’ll happen anytime soon.