{"id":1299,"date":"2009-06-14T13:30:27","date_gmt":"2009-06-14T20:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1299"},"modified":"2009-06-14T14:13:28","modified_gmt":"2009-06-14T21:13:28","slug":"did-fox-news-capitulate-to-scientology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1299","title":{"rendered":"Did Fox News Capitulate To Scientology?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1237\" target=\"_blank\">Last April<\/a>, Fox News entertainment reporter, Roger Friedman, was fired, allegedly because he had acquired and viewed a bootleg copy of 20th Century Fox&#8217;s <em>&#8220;X-Men Origins: Wolverine.&#8221;<\/em> At the time it appeared a rather harsh sentence considering that Fox has no problem with continuing to employ people who&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8230;joke about assassinating Barack Obama (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=923\" target=\"_blank\">Liz Trotta<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>&#8230;read Republican Party press releases on the air as if they were actually news (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1197\" target=\"_blank\">Jon Scott<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>&#8230;express a desire to strangle competing reporters (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=626\" target=\"_blank\">Bill O&#8217;Reilly<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>&#8230;yearn to choke Michael Moore to death (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1136\" target=\"_blank\">Glenn Beck<\/a>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I also wondered whether Fox might have been itching for an excuse to cast Friedman overboard due to his blasphemous praise of Fox nemesis Michael Moore:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>On Fahrenheit 9\/11<\/strong>:<span style=\"color: rgb(13, 0, 208);\"> &#8220;It turns out to be a really brilliant piece of work, and a film that members of all political parties should see without fail.&#8221; He continued, &#8220;&#8230;a tribute to patriotism, to the American sense of duty &#8211; and at the same time an indictment of stupidity and avarice.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>On Sicko<\/strong>:<span style=\"color: rgb(13, 0, 208);\"> &#8220;Filmmaker Michael Moore&#8217;s brilliant and uplifting new documentary, <em>&#8216;Sicko,&#8217;<\/em> deals with the failings of the U.S. healthcare system, both real and perceived. But this time around, the controversial documentarian seems to be letting the subject matter do the talking, and in the process shows a new maturity.&#8221;<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Now the New York Daily News is reporting that Friedman is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/gossip\/2009\/06\/14\/2009-06-14_foxs_axed_man_blames_scientologists.html?print=1&#038;page=all\" target=\"_blank\">suing Fox News<\/a> for wrongful termination, and the reason is something I had not anticipated. He is claiming that Rupert Murdoch and News Corp bowed to pressure from Kelly Preston and Tom Cruise who wanted Friedman fired because he had written  critically of Scientology. At first, that seems to be a frivolous assertion, but upon further examination it becomes more plausible.<\/p>\n<p>The Scientology organization has a reputation for being fiercely aggressive when it believes that it has been disparaged. And Friedman did indeed write multiple columns that were less than complimentary to Scientology. For example: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/story\/0,2933,351287,00.html\" target=\"_blank\">Television Star Exits Scientology<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/story\/0,2933,96299,00.html\" target=\"_blank\">Will Scientology Celebs Sign &#8216;Spiritual&#8217; Contract?<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/story\/0,2933,401321,00.html\" target=\"_blank\">Isaac Hayes&#8217; History With Scientology<\/a>. And there were others that touched on big stars like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/story\/0,2933,468644,00.html\" target=\"_blank\">Will Smith<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/story\/0,2933,385542,00.html\" target=\"_blank\">Tom Cruise<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t pretend to know the truth about Friedman&#8217;s claim. Fox may have already had it in for him due to the Wolverine episode or his acclaim for Moore&#8217;s movies. All I can say is that, if Scientology really has Fox cowering before it, I wish Bill O&#8217;Reilly or Glenn Beck would say something to piss them off. Now that&#8217;s entertainment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last April, Fox News entertainment reporter, Roger Friedman, was fired, allegedly because he had acquired and viewed a bootleg copy of 20th Century Fox&#8217;s &#8220;X-Men Origins: Wolverine.&#8221; At the time it appeared a rather harsh sentence considering that Fox has no problem with continuing to employ people who&#8230; &#8230;joke about assassinating Barack Obama (Liz Trotta). [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[33,363,32,533,30,579],"class_list":["post-1299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-fox-news","tag-michael-moore","tag-news-corp","tag-roger-friedman","tag-rupert-murdoch","tag-scientology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-kX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1237,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1237","url_meta":{"origin":1299,"position":0},"title":"How To Get Fired At Fox News","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/6\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Roger Friedman, the entertainment columnist at FoxNews.com has reportedly been fired for an unforgivable breach of Fox's ethical standards. He disclosed in his column (since deleted) that he had acquired and viewed a bootleg copy of 20th Century Fox's \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine.\" A statement from Fox said: \"This behavior is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":443,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=443","url_meta":{"origin":1299,"position":1},"title":"Sicko Gets Thumbs Up From&#8230;Fox?","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/19\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Michael Moore's new film, \"Sicko,\" got a critical boost today from an unexpected source. Roger Friedman, the Fox411 entertainment reporter, lavished praise on the film in his online column: \"Filmmaker Michael Moore's brilliant and uplifting new documentary, \"Sicko,\" deals with the failings of the U.S. healthcare system, both real and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art\/Culture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art\/Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":384,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=384","url_meta":{"origin":1299,"position":2},"title":"The Rock And Roll Hall Of Infamy","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/18\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The recent ceremony inducting new members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame served up its customary portion of controversy. While much of the entertainment press focused on the Van Halen soap opera pitting David Lee Roth against Sammy Hager, there was some more nuanced and poignant melodrama. Inductee\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art\/Culture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art\/Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":938,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=938","url_meta":{"origin":1299,"position":3},"title":"Rupert Murdoch To Fire Roger Ailes?","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/6\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"If Gawker is to believed, News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch, and his longtime Fox News chief Roger Ailes, have had a falling out that may cost Ailes his job. The alleged spat arose from the controversial near publication of O.J. Simpson's confessional book, \"If I Did It.\" The backlash from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34710,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=34710","url_meta":{"origin":1299,"position":4},"title":"MSNBC is Finally Negotiating with Lawrence O&#8217;Donnell. Keep the Pressure on. It&#8217;s Working","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/19\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The soap opera drama surrounding Lawrence O'Donnell's contract negotiations with MSNBC is heating up. In a good way. Last week an article on the Huffington Post revealed that MSNBC was not actively negotiating to re-sign O'Donnell whose contract expires in June. That news startled his fans and the media world\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Lawrence O'Donnell MSNBC","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/odonnell-not-alone.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/odonnell-not-alone.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/odonnell-not-alone.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11273,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=11273","url_meta":{"origin":1299,"position":5},"title":"Fox News On Mute: Federal Judge Rules Against Challenge To ObamaCare Subsidies","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/15\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of conservative activists sought to cripple the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) by filing a lawsuit that challenged the authority of the federal health care exchanges to offer subsidies to those who purchased insurance through them. It was a weak argument from the start, but one that had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fox News","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-obamacare-court-win.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}