Fox & Friends Not Guilty Of Defamation For Repeating Parody -- Just Gullibility

from the not-malice dept

Wed, Apr 1st 2009 2:42pm — Mike Masnick

MediaShift points out that the folks at the TV show Fox & Friends have been found not guilty of defamation, after they repeated quotes from a parody news article that they assumed were true (though, even they admitted that the quotes sounded as if they could be from a parody). Basically, it turns out they were just gullible, not defamatory -- mainly because there was no specific malicious intent in repeating the parody info. While the court admitted that the gullibility was negligent and distasteful, that didn't rise to the level of malicious. If anything, the reputation hurt most by this incident isn't that of the guy suing for defamation... but that of the hosts of Fox & Friends.

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Filed Under: defamation, fox & friends, malice, parody
Companies: fox

11 Comments

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Slackr, 1 Apr 2009 @ 3:24pm

I didn't realise Fox & Friends had a reputation to be hurt in the first place...I'm surprised someone was interested enough to actually sue.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2009 @ 3:34pm

where's the parody article? i want to see what it said.
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- interval, 1 Apr 2009 @ 4:31pm
  
  Re:
  It was an article out of the Onion, if I remember. I don't remember the content, but I remember thinking that the dope on F&F must be either incredibly gullible or incredibly myopic to have not heard of the Onion in this day of internet and hoola-hoops and so on. What do they do, go directly to the F&F web page and no where else when they access the internet, assuming they know what the internet is?
  
  That said, they are the highest rated cable new program right now. And (for our liberal friends) MSNBC is the lowest. What the hell ever happened to reporting only the news, not a network's political opinion?
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  - Luci, 1 Apr 2009 @ 5:48pm
    
    Re: Re:
    No, this was NOT out of the Onion. It was Associate Content, not an Onion article. Note in the linked article, one of the anchors /mentions/ the Onion, as in he found it hard to believe it wasn't from that particular site. The article has been removed from Associated Content, but of course it lives on:
    
    http://forums.christiansunite.com/index.php?topic=16484.0
    
    Enjoy.
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Weird Harold, 1 Apr 2009 @ 3:56pm

I thought Fox was a parody of a news channel.
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- Guy One, 1 Apr 2009 @ 5:35pm
  
  Re:
  Oh man saw that one coming! Thats the attitude that fits people who think like you.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2009 @ 3:57pm

Fox and Friends is a great source for weird, polarizing watercooler topics. Usually, my routine starts while waiting for the office undesirable to finish getting coffee.

I don't believe anything they say on there, for reasons listed in the main article, and I find it difficult for anyone to believe their stories sometimes. But this doesn't stop me. I share their daily talking points just to see the look of disgust on others faces. That look is it's own reward.

Repeating Fox often gets a much better response than that time I came into work wearing a French Beret, armed with a sledgehammer and a crate of watermelons...
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VlogHog, 1 Apr 2009 @ 6:09pm

Whatever happened to editors? Fact checkers?
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- Rupert Murdock, 1 Apr 2009 @ 8:17pm
  
  Re:
  Facts? Fox don' need no steenkin' facts...
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Apr 2009 @ 12:00am

As reported by Kieth Olbermann at MSNBC, Rupert's own personal fortunes have dwindled some 40-50% since Obama was elected.

This may be Republicans continue to live in a world of anti-logistical, anti-linear world, and people like Glenn Beck continue to exist.

It should be noted that Kieth is the only one I watch and truly look forward to at MSNBC. I thoroughly enjoy him, and partially identified with Kieth's open admission that he saw his job as being "The Asshole".

But quite genuinely speaking, that's why I watch him, have him TiVoed, and often find that he's right. Now, granted, Glenn is no Alex Jones, but he's often right.

Personally, I find Glenn as a bad comedy routine that needs Ritalin. Even "RedEye with Greg Gutfeld" has more cohesion than Glenn. I imagine that if Greg dropped all the subtle homosexual hints, he'd probably have Glenn's spot.

And that seems to be a problem.

Today, when visiting the Drudge Report, as I usually do, I saw an interesting advert mentioning his show as "#1 in Cable News for a Decade." What an ad.

But as Olbermann watchers know, O'Riley's producers, or whoever, decided that the best way to address network decisions of stalking bloggers for 4 hours while they were on vacation was to not address the fact that they are loosing advertisers, but put out a new ad stating "#1 in Cable News for a Decade"

Incredible.

So it seems the world is quite willing to dissect a burning bag of crap left on a blog owners porch, but when it comes to accepting it for what it is, and doing actual journalism, well, we're just not ready for that.

If you spent time watching the two networks simultaneously, you would have known this. But alas, I fear few have the power of 16-tuner Sat-Based TiVo setup I have. It's quite glorious actually.

Yes, it's all TiVo. Get off your ass and bring me a HD TiVo, Malone. It should have been here in Feburary.
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Tamara, 2 Apr 2009 @ 2:00am

I don't know what reputation Fox News has in the US, but here in Australia(unlike CNN the version of Fox News we get here is exactly the same as the US) it's basically a laughing stock.
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