- Sunday, 8 November 2009
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The only newspapers that can be bought are the ones not worth buying - Lord Liverpool
Fox network gets sued for libel
A FORMER Fox News hack who stole a march on competitors by downloading an unofficial copy of the film Wolverine has sued the outfit for defamation.
Roger Friedman filed suit against Fox and the News Corporation in New York State Supreme Court because he was fired after watching a fileshared copy of the Fox flick to write his column. He reviewed an unfinished version of the film and thus scored ahead of any other reviewer who had not seen the official release.
Friedman, who worked as a gossip columnist for Fox, said that the article was cleared by his editors, who told him not to worry about his job after Rupert Murdoch, the News Corporation chairman, ordered his column to be taken down off the web.
What seems to have gotten Friedman's goat was that after he was fired News Corp made a public statement saying it had a zero-tolerance policy about actions that promote online 'piracy'.
Friedman, who has since been hired by The Hollywood Reporter, says in his lawsuit that the statement libelled him. Friedman alleges he was canned from his $250,000-per-year job illegally. News Corp owns Fox News and 20th Century Fox, the studio behind Wolverine.
In another press story, Friedman has hinted that his firing had nothing to do with his review of Wolverine, but everything to do with a Scientology plot to get rid of him. Apparently Scientology is mentioned once in the lawsuit.
It looks like this yarn is going have all the drama of a P2P filesharing 'piracy' lawsuit and a conspiracy movie all rolled into one. We wonder if anyone has bought the film rights yet. µ
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I wanted to start a "Get his goat" Vs. "Get his goad" argument. I'm falling firmly in the 'goad' camp. Not that the INQ has ever been too concerned with grammar, but this one's a common misuse. Just trying to stop the propagation.
The expression is "get his goat", according to the Cambridge dictionary:
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=33549&dict=CALD
You were misinformed.
... is not gold.
Fox entertainment channel strikes again.
I don't know how people still can watch that and pretend that it isn't worse than 8th grade journalism, if that.
He should thank them for firing him, because if you work for fox news channel, odds are you are the bottom of the barrel. I'd remove that from my resume as it's the scarlet letter these days (and with full justification).
I hope Fox gets their butt handed to them in the lawsuit. They definitely deserve it for all the lies and ethical/immoral lines they crossed when providing 'news' (IN QUOTES).
I won't comment on anyone defending them, I'll just say in advance I pity your soul if you feel the need to.
It has been misused so frequently that it has gained common acceptance. However, if you really dig into the etymology (as well as adding a tinge of common sense), you'll find that the original saying used 'goad', which eventually became 'goat' through systematic mispronunciation. Thanks for taking the bait though :)
What is this all about? A sum of random words to sell stuff? A secret code?
Welcome to the mysterious world of Drashek.
You're wrong; AC is right.
Fox news Hack? Roger Friedman is a pretty well known entertainment reporter.
Also for J who is long on talk but short on knowledge - just FYI but Fox News is the most watched, highest rated cable news channel on the planet - It routinely (as in everyday for years now) gets more viewers and ratings than CNN & MSNBC combined, sometimes tripling their COMBINED ratings. Making fox news employee anchors the most viewed & highest paid which shows how much you know my friend. You basically called the majority of America stupid. That's not something to be proud of.
Maybe you should read more books and stay away from the TV in general, you know from one 'elitest schmuck' to another. Cheers.
'You basically called the majority of America stupid'...oh the temptation. :-)
I am extremely stupid, even by the impossible standards set by my fellow Americans. Yet I know quality and accuracy do not have a causal relationship with ratings. See American Idol, Usher and Shrek the Third.