Groening: Fox News Threatened to Sue ‘Simpsons’
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) – Over its 14-year history, “The Simpsons” has taken almost as many shots at its network, FOX, as Bart has at Springfield bartender Moe Szyslak through his prank calls.
However, Fox News Channel — which is part of the same News Corp. empire that owns FOX — apparently got a little touchy about an episode of the show that aired last season.
In an interview on National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air” last week, “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening said Fox News threatened to sue “The Simpsons” for using a fake news crawl with the Fox News logo in an episode that aired in March. The episode, titled “Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington,” involved Krusty the Clown running for Congress.
“We called their bluff because we didn’t think [News Corp. CEO] Rupert Murdoch would pay for Fox to sue itself,” Groening says in the interview. “We got away with it, but now FOX has a new rule that we can’t do those little fake news crawls in a cartoon because it might confuse the viewers into thinking it’s real news.”
Fox News says it never threatened to sue the show, according to several news reports.
The fake crawl took some jabs at Fox News’ right-leaning reputation, reading in part: “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. …”
“The Simpsons” begins its 15th season Sunday (Nov. 2) with the annual “Treehouse of Horror” episode.
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