Fox's Suit Sells More Books

"I'd love to make the case that Fox News will suffer irreparable damage to its reputation as a result of its frivolous lawsuit against satirist and author Al Franken, but I can't," writes Paul Holmes for PR Week. "Because the kind of people who take Fox News seriously won't care, and the kind of people who care are already incapable of taking Fox News seriously. ... The suit is rich in irony, from the fact that Fox News can trademark a phrase so unrelated to its true agenda (it's as if Larry Flynt had trademarked the phrase 'tasteful and modest') to the fact that O'Reilly can accuse anyone of launching 'gratuitous personal attacks' to the fact that right-wing Fox, which is opposed to frivolous lawsuits, would itself launch one of the most frivolous in living memory. (Even The Wall Street Journal editorial page found the suit ridiculous.) ... In fact, the only impact of the suit will be that Franken's book sells many more copies than it could without the publicity - it's already shot to number five on Amazon's bestseller list."