Wild Kingdom…
Richard Blow thinks that FOX is trying to suppress Al Franken’s new book with its lawsuit over the use of “fair and balanced” in the title. This suit is going nowhere, in terms of suppressing the book and/or its title, for reasons that have been well-stated throughout the blogosphere.
Think of the lawsuit as a vehicle of publicity, a symbiotic relationship among entertainers to keep citizens consuming infotainment.
We’ve all read about the odd insults in the suit. Is that professional, lawyerly discourse? Of course not. It’s not supposed to be. These funky insults, which have nothing to do with anything in a legal sense, are there purely to be found by reporters. The reporting of them plays directly into the narrative bias of journalism: we have here two mutually-created antagonists and protagonists. We have publicity!
Franken takes a shot at conservative media. FOX shoots back. And, in the process, each is enriched. Franken’s publisher is increasing the press run for the horde of hand-wringing liberals who are sure to buy now that there’s drama created by a threat. “The extra printing is definitely a result of the interest generated from the lawsuit,” said Penguin spokeswoman Lisa Johnson. Cha-Ching! FOX gets to look like a slayer of liberal dragons to its legion loyal of dittoheads.
What keeps all of this infotainment profitable is the constant picking at the scab of partisanship. FOX is picking on (helping) Franken just as Franken is picking on (helping) FOX. It’s a beautiful system if you don’t consider too carefully the damage it’s doing to your civic discourse. (Note: I am not suggesting this process is planned among the species. It is a process that evolved to the mutual survival and benefit of each.)
This is *precisely* the type of suit that ought to be drawing heavy sanctions from the presiding judge against plaintiffs’ attorneys.