DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME;

"Crazy like a FOX"

(note: this diary is an editorial. It's a political editorial. maybe slightly
comic but not much. If you are an avid watcher of Fox news you may want to go
do something else - it's is too late for you as it is. Everyone else, enjoy
this read and hopefully it won't scare you like it scared me. NOTHING on
Halloween is scarier than Fox News. Trust me.)

Dear Friends, just when you thought those wacky kids at Fox News couldn't
possibly tickle your tummy any more than they already do, get this; the link
below is a REAL letter written by a Fox News lawyer to the guy who runs the
website www.oreilly-sucks.com

http://www.oreilly-sucks.com/images/foxletter.jpg

Of course, our hero, Bill O'Reilly, is the subject of said site. But Bill has
gone so far is to get the Fox lawyers to file yet ANOTHER frivolous lawsuit
(the first being the one against Al Franken for using the slogan 'Fair and
Balanced'...the judge LITERALLY laughed te Fox Attys out of court...TRUE! They
walked out in protest because the judge couldn't stop laughing when they
suggested that normal people would get Al's book confused with a 'legit' Fox
book because the title was misleading...ok...where was i....) against a guy for
having a website that has no advertising. Hmmm.

Now, to give my non-American friends an idea of how kooky the Fox News Channel
is, these idiots tried to sue the Simpsons Producers earlier this year. TRUE
STORY. Well, why does that make them idiots you ask? How about this: THEY OWN
THE SIMPSONS. That's right. They went so far as to file a lawsuit. Why?
Because the Simpsons had a skit that mimicked the Fox News and at the bottom
ticker read things like "Democrats responsible for Cancer" and stuff like that.
I mean, these guys get laughed out of court because they have no sense of
humor. ANYBODY can watch Fox for 5 minutes and know EXACTLY what their agenda
is. They don't even TRY to hide it! Hello!

But the problem with suing yourself (besides the obvious stupidity of suing
yourself)is that you not only are paying Lawyers to sue yourself, but you are
also paying lawyers to DEFEND yourself. DUH!!!!!! According to Simpson's
creator, Matt Groening, he was betting just that; that Rupert Murdock wasn't
THAT stupid. (apparently, NO ONE at Fox wanted to sue Franken. It was O'Reilly
the bully who insisted, having, you know, the 'top rated cable news show.')

Now, even beyond any of this is an interesting article in the LA TIMES today.
It's a story on a former Fox Producer of 6 years who recently quit. But he's
now spilling the beans...and boy is he spilling em. Check this article out:

http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/cl-et-rutten1nov01,1,234902.column?coll=la-headlines-lifestyle

Now, the reason for this little rant is that i have a point that i want to
raise and it's this one; if a very influential news media corporation, a TOP
RATED one at that, influences or effects or, heck, INSPIRES other news media
corporations to copy their formats or, at the very least, ARE INCORPORATING
SOME OF THOSE OPINIONS AND TACTICS, how are we, THE PUBLIC, to believe in
presidential public opinion polls if the main and top rated news source is
SUBJECTIVE and in bed with the Presidents people. How is this any different
from Italy or WWII Germany? I mean, to me America has principles...or HAD
principles. Not it's going to the highest bidder.

Think about that. Because i am. I mean, do you ever see Bush's approval
rating at like 51% and scratch yer head? You KNOW it can't be right. I know
MANY republicans that think the guy is driving drunk again. But if FOX is
doing their thing and other news companies are atleast unwilling to be TOO far
away from FOX's opinions - lest they wish to be branded 'tree huggin liberals -
doesn't that give you feeling that you, the citizen, are being completely had?
All i ask is that you read that article. If it's even 25% true the 'NEWS' part
of FOX should be eliminated. Maybe they could change it to JIVE, as in "FOX
JIVE, the #1 rated cable Jive company."

So, in summation my friends, i think, based on Fox's role in the media since
Dubya has taken office, the public should remove ATLEAST 9% points from Bush's
approval rating to make up for the obvious subjective influence that Fox has on
ALL media. But maybe i'm giving them too much credit? I mean, most people I
know think Fox is a joke anyway. But I think Howard Dean had it right when he
said you can't just CHANGE Presidents. You have to change America. Preach on, brother.

=====

Mike Randle
mike@lovewitharthurlee.com

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