FOX VS FOX!

[defrog]

ITEM: A entertainment columnist has drawn the ire of News Corp bosses after writing a review of a leaked version of the upcoming 20th Century Fox blockbuster "X-Men Origins: Wolverine".

Who would do such a thing? Roger Friedman of Fox News ... which is owned by News Corps.

It gets weirder.

At first they were unhappy with him because he wrote a review based on an unfinished product (something that most movie/entertainment writers supposedly agreed not to do). Now the story is that they’re unhappy with Friedman because his column included a sentence marveling at how easy it is to watch pirated movies on the Internets:

"It took really less than seconds to start playing it all right onto my computer.”

According to News Corps, he might as well have written, “I think it’s great that people steal movies and upload them and I think you should all go do that right now.” But then Rupert Murdoch thinks search engine results are copyright infringement.

Anyway, News Corps says Fox News fired Friedman, but Friedman says they haven’t (yet). That may change later today. And an argument could be made that anyone who downloads a pirate version of a movie from his own company (sort of) and then writes about it is asking for it.

That said, I kind of hope Friedman keeps his job. Not that I think it’s cool to write reviews based on unfinished product (which is pointless and hardly fair). But I hate the idea of someone at Fox News getting sacked over something like fair comment over the ease of access to pirated material when people like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly spout spectacular batshit on the same network yet remain gainfully employed.

(And Murdoch and Roger Ailes actually HATE O’Reilly’s guts.)

Original pirate material,

This is dF

=====================

EDITED TO ADD [April 9]: They fired him.

Comments

[thelastaerie.livejournal.com]

Not that I think it’s cool to write reviews based on unfinished product (which is pointless and hardly fair).

I think it all depends on whether he has got the permission to comment on an unfinished project or the first cut. Imdb board is full of such reviews and comments from people who went to focus group or other channels. Of course, even though they've all signed confidentiality documents, they'll still blah blah blah about it on the net anyway.

I am sure if the review has been glowing,then there won't be much complain...

re: it's easy to find pirate movies on the net. So they are not allowed to state the fact now? :P

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

Permissions aside, I don't see the point of passing judgment on something that's not done yet, though maybe it depends on what you say about it – like constructive criticism about what works and what doesn't, like test audiences do (and io9 did with the Wolverine leak), rather than passing final judgment on it. I don't know which way Friedman went on that (and won't now because Fox deleted his column).

[dinopollard.livejournal.com]

I agree. I don't care if he downloaded it or not, but passing judgment on an incomplete product is not fair.