Press Release: MoveOn.org: Unfair and Unbalanced

MoveOn.org: Unfair and Unbalanced MOVEON.ORG & COMMON CAUSE FILE PETITION AGAINST FOX AT FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION FOR EXTREME REPUBLICAN NEWS BIAS
Call Use of “Fair and Balanced” Trademark

Consumer Fraud and False Advertising

Independent Media Institute Announces Pending Petition for Cancellation of FOX Trademark at US Patent-Trademark Office

NEW YORK, NY – MoveOn.org, the 2.4 million member progressive advocacy organization, and Common Cause, a leading national media and government reform organization, stepped up their campaign against FOX News’ claim to be “fair and balanced” with the announcement today that they have filed a petition with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asking the agency to stop FOX News’ use of the deceptive tagline.

Citing recent evidence that the cable station maintains a clear Republican bias in its news coverage, the petition was filed against FOX News under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. §45) for deceptive practices in the advertising and marketing of cable television programming:

FOX News has violated section 5 by using the slogan and mark “Fair and Balanced” to advertise and promote the FOX News Channel (“FNC”) to consumers, and to induce consumers to watch FNC, despite the fact that FNC’s news and commentary programming is not remotely “fair” or “balanced” but, rather, is deliberately and consistently distorted and twisted to promote the Republican Party of the U.S. and an extreme right-wing viewpoint.

“FOX News is misleading its viewers by calling its partisan programming ‘Fair and Balanced,’” said Wes Boyd, co-founder of MoveOn.org. “There is nothing fair about deceptive advertising, and there is nothing balanced about telling only one side of the story. The Federal Trade Commission and Congress must act to prevent this misleading marketing from further harming consumers and public trust in the media.”

“FOX’s use of ‘Fair and Balanced’ will be difficult to defend in light of their preferential treatment of Republicans and conservative ideas,” said Common Cause President,

Chellie Pingree. “This tagline is designed not to enable FOX to engage more freely in public debate but rather to suppress public debate and monopolize the words ‘fair’ and ‘balanced.’”

“FOX has a constitutional right to argue in public debate that their news coverage is fair and balanced, but it doesn't have the right to market its network services to prospective viewers and advertisers by masquerading as a news network, and by seeking falsely to monopolize the promotional tagline ‘Fair and Balanced,’” said Michael Pertschuk, former Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission for President Carter and Commissioner (1977-1984). “The evidence now reveals that FOX functions principally as an undisclosed propaganda arm of the Republican Party. ‘Unfair and Unbalanced But Unwaveringly Republican’ would be an honest tagline.”

MoveOn.org’s case includes reference to revelations of partisan bias by former FOX employees and internal memorandums in a documentary film released last week that the organization helped finance and promote, OutFoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, as well as a recent study by Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, a media watchdog group, that shows conservative guests outnumbering progressives five to one on FOX News.

MoveOn.org members handed DVD copies of the documentary to FOX employees entering and leaving the News Channel’s building in Manhattan before and during the 10AM press conference.

Moveon.org also announced the petition Sunday evening to 3,000 house parties across the country where 30,000 people gathered to watch OutFoxed.

The Independent Media Institute’s President, Don Hazen, also announced at today’s press conference that his organization, a not-for-profit promoter of independent journalism, has a cancellation petition pending since December 2003 at the US Patent and Trademark Office challenging FOX’s deceptive and fraudulent trademark use of ‘Fair and Balanced.’ IMI’s petition was filed just hours before a deadline that would have granted FOX permanent ownership of ‘Fair and Balanced’ as a registered trademark.

IMI cites FOX’s failed August 2003 lawsuit against author Al Franken as further sign that FOX’s trademark claims will not hold up in court. FOX brought suit against the humorist Franken and his publisher, EP Dutton/Penguin, for alleged infringement on FOX’s three-word trademark in his book titled, Liars and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin remarked that FOX’s right to such a trademark was not strong and ruled against the lawsuit as “wholly without merit, both factually and legally.”