Tuesday

'It's
very touching. I almost break down and cry thinking about what a hot-button issue I've touched here. We were very close to packing it in, and now the whole world wants to know what
I think.'

The little web site that
has Fox News fuming

Legal threat over spoof T-shirts rouses $ support

By Jim Jazwiecki

As a TV news operation, Fox News Channel prides itself on the give and take it offers viewers. But that can't be said for its legal department when the cable news network is the subject of some of the jabbing its on-air talents relish in. Recently, the people behind Agitproperties.com, an Austin, Tex.-based activist web site, received a letter from Fox lawyers insisting that the site stop selling T-shirts making fun of the News Corp.-owned channel. One shirt reads “Faux News: We distort, you comply,” while another advertises the “O’Reilly Youth,” a reference to Hitler's youth groups. In its letter, Fox threatened legal action, claiming that the T-shirts could result in consumer confusion and “the impairment of the goodwill represented by the name ‘Fox News Channel.'” Media Life recently spoke with Agitproperties webmaster Richard Luckett about the brouhaha.

So tell our readers about how this whole to-do between you and Fox News got started.

   We've been selling these shirts to fund our site, a clearinghouse for alternative news sources from all over the world. After all the foofaraw about the war in Iraq, our traffic and our sales went down to nothing and we were just about ready to pack things in. I was emailing people all over for months and months, and we could never get any interest generated.
   But then Fox gave us this cease-and-desist letter, which I posted, and it was posted by several blogs.
   The next thing you know, I'm getting interview requests from all over the world. My server crashed this morning because I got in excess of 65,000 hits. We’re averaging 400 to 500 emails a day, all of them supporting and encouraging.
   The O'Reilly Youth shirts are flying out the window. I just can't tell you how many orders we've got. I've been doing nothing but fulfilling orders. It's a three-man operation in a garage in Austin.
   I must say that the whole reason this story is getting the media legs is because of bloggers. It's turned into a cause célèbre.
   It's very touching. I almost break down and cry thinking about what a hot-button issue I've touched here. We were very close to packing it in, and now the whole world wants to know what I think.
   My whole point is that this is going to make many, many people think twice about Fox. That's all I want to do.

Why did you decide to take on Fox News in the first place? What are your beefs with them, specifically?

   For them to call themselves fair and balanced and say "We Report, You Decide," is beyond the pale. The fact that they're the only cable news channel that, despite the fact that they're No. 1, feels the need to spout that every 15 minutes just smacks of Orwell.
   There's no other way for me to describe it. The way that liberals and left-wingers are treated when they get on those talk shows -- immediately shouted down, without an opportunity to even get a word in -- is just absurd.
   Alan Colmes! He's a red herring. He's just there for window dressing. Sean Hannity is particularly in my sights -- that sanctimony, when those eyebrows start arching, and he starts wagging his finger.
   Let's talk about Bill O'Reilly, too.
   Since when does being a reporter from “Entertainment Tonight” on the Michael Jackson plastic surgery beat all of a sudden, overnight, allow you to start making official pronouncements about politics as if it's gospel?

Anyone else in the news media you’ve got it in for besides Fox News stars?

   I saw Ann Coulter on “Hannity & Colmes” last night and I had to switch the channel. It just made my blood boil. I've got a shirt lined up for her!
   So Ann Coulter, and especially [congressman-turned-cable news commentator ] Joe Scarborough. He resigned and got a job at MSNBC. You'll notice, although he never was in the military, there are two shots of him in military uniform. No one else has pointed it out, but I plan on making hay out of that.
   He's trying to out-O'Reilly O'Reilly, and it's so transparent.

What’s going on with your legal defense?

   I've been overwhelmed by the amount of legal advice I've been offered.
   In a few days we'll have chosen our counsel, and we're going to take it all the way. Fox News has painted themselves into a corner. This story has gotten legs just by whatever we and everyone else has been doing. If their competitors get ahold of the story, it's going to be very bad from there. It's a lose-lose situation for them. They'll take it all the way, or they'll back off, in which case they lose face.
   I wish I could divulge more about our present legal situation, but within the next five to six days you'll be seeing it in the national media.
   Fox thought they would spend 37 cents on a letter to some little company in Austin that would just roll over. Well, they're getting a very, very big surprise.
   I must admit, I've got quite a lot of personal satisfaction from not only being a thorn in their side but also from making a profit doing it.

-Jim Jazwiecki is a New York writer and an occasional contributor to Media Life.

Printer-Friendly Version | Send to a Friend
Cover Page | Contact Us

Click here to add the Media Life home page to your favorites!