US TV
Groening: 'Simpsons' was threatened by FNC
Published Wednesday, Oct 29 2003, 09:51 GMT | By Neil Wilkes
Matt Groening, creator of long-running cartoon series The Simpsons, has revealed that the show was threatened with legal action by the FOX News Channel.
According to Groening, FNC was miffed after an episode of the show - which airs on the FOX network - poked fun at its rolling news ticker.
The episode in question featured a "FOX News crawl" at the bottom of the screen parodying items featured on the channel. It read: "Pointless news crawls up 37 per cent ... Do Democrats cause cancer? Find out at foxnews.com ... Rupert Murdoch: Terrific dancer ... Dow down 5000 points ... Study: 92 per cent of Democrats are gay ... JFK posthumously joins Republican Party ... Oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple ..."
Speaking to National Public Radio, Groening said that he was threatened with legal action after the episode aired.
"We did the crawl along the bottom of the screen," he said. "Fox said they would sue the show. And we called their bluff because we didn't think Rupert Murdoch would pay for Fox to sue itself. We got away with it. But now Fox has a new rule that we can't do those little fake news crawls on the bottom of the screen in a cartoon because it might confuse the viewers into thinking it's real news."
An FNC spokesman denied that a lawsuit was ever in question, however. "We are scratching our heads over here," he said. "We liked the cartoon. We thought it was great."
According to Groening, FNC was miffed after an episode of the show - which airs on the FOX network - poked fun at its rolling news ticker.
The episode in question featured a "FOX News crawl" at the bottom of the screen parodying items featured on the channel. It read: "Pointless news crawls up 37 per cent ... Do Democrats cause cancer? Find out at foxnews.com ... Rupert Murdoch: Terrific dancer ... Dow down 5000 points ... Study: 92 per cent of Democrats are gay ... JFK posthumously joins Republican Party ... Oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple ..."
Speaking to National Public Radio, Groening said that he was threatened with legal action after the episode aired.
"We did the crawl along the bottom of the screen," he said. "Fox said they would sue the show. And we called their bluff because we didn't think Rupert Murdoch would pay for Fox to sue itself. We got away with it. But now Fox has a new rule that we can't do those little fake news crawls on the bottom of the screen in a cartoon because it might confuse the viewers into thinking it's real news."
An FNC spokesman denied that a lawsuit was ever in question, however. "We are scratching our heads over here," he said. "We liked the cartoon. We thought it was great."
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