Fox News sues Dem candidate for ‘compromising’ its ‘objectivity’ (UPDATE)

[meegbear]

Fox News has sued the Democratic candidate for Senate from Missouri, saying an ad her campaign started airing this week infringes on the network's copyright and compromises the network's "objectivity."

Democratic nominee Robin Carnahan's ad consists mostly of a four-year-old clip from Fox News showing her Republican rival, Rep. Roy Blunt, being aggressively questioned by Fox host Chris Wallace over the senator's ties to lobbyists.

The Hollywood Reporter states that in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in a US District Court in Missouri, Fox News accused Carnahan of airing a "smear ad" against Blunt. The network reportedly said the ad was meant to imply that Fox News is backing Carnahan.

The lawsuit (PDF) also claims an "invasion of privacy" against Wallace, because his image was "appropriated" for the ad.

Fox News doesn't mention Carnahan in the ad, as the clip focuses on a 2006 interview of Blunt by Chris Wallace.

<snip>

UPDATE

Fox's lawsuit "is an apparent escalation of such fair use battles," reports Ryan J. Reilly at TalkingPointsMemo.

"This is the only case that I know of where a broadcast news organization has sued a political campaign over use of news footage in an ad," Copyrights & Campaigns blogger Ben Sheffner told Reilly. "There's been a number of disputes over this issue, but they never got to a court case, that I'm aware."

UPDATE II: Fox News donated to Blunt campaign before suing his opponent

News Corp., the parent of Fox News, has donated more than $10,000 to the Senate campaign of Rep. Roy Blunt through its political action committee, including some $2,500 in the current election cycle, Sarah Pavlus reports at MediaMatters.

The company evidently did not donate to Carnahan's campaign.

Pavlus notes that Fox News Sunday has offered to host a debate between Blunt and Carnahan. "Where does the offer stand now that Fox News and FNS host Chris Wallace are suing the Carnahan campaign?" she asks.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/fox-sues-dem-compromising-objectivity/

[azul]

1. Businesses may sue for smear campaign ads but people cannot?

This seems like a bad joke: Fox's "objectivity" already is proven with its win of a lawsuit that effectively gave it the right to lie.

http://www.ringnebula.com/project-censored/2005/2005-story11-PC.htm

[still_one]

5. and we cannot sue faux for using public airwave to lie? /nt

[L0oniX]

2. Fux and objectivity? WTF

[still_one]

3. Gee, but it is alright if video clips are used in other campaigns against Democrats?

[EOTE]

4. This from an organization that actually SUED for its right to lie. NT