Fox News sues Robin Carnahan Senate campaign

Missouri Lawyers Media

Fox News sues Robin Carnahan Senate campaign

by Anna Vitale

Published: September 16th, 2010

An ad for Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan’s U.S. Senate run has landed her campaign in hot water with Fox News Network.

In a suit filed in federal court in Kansas City on Wednesday, Fox claims Carnahan’s September “Clean up the house” ad used an “essentially verbatim copy of a 30-second clip of both video footage and voice-over commentary” from a 2006 interview conducted by Fox anchor Christopher Wallace with U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Springfield. Wallace is also a plaintiff in the suit.

Fox and Wallace are represented by Bernard J. Rhodes, of Lathrop & Gage in Kansas City. Rhodes did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

The ad features Wallace asking Blunt a series of questions about his involvement with lobbyists as a Fox News icon spins in the corner of the screen. Then Wallace asks Blunt if he’s “the one to clean up the house.” Finally, a separate voice says, “Roy Blunt, the very worst of Washington.”

Carnahan’s campaign used the ad on television and on its website next to requests for monetary donations, Fox claims, and made it appear as if Wallace endorsed Carnahan.

“[Fox] is a news organization that has not endorsed a candidate in the 2010 Missouri senatorial race,” the network said in its lawsuit.

“By including the [Fox] Interview in an advertisement endorsing a specific political candidate, Defendant harmed the value of the original work by compromising its apparent objectivity.”

Fox wants the ad down and off the air, and payment for any profits Carnahan gleaned from its use. Fox also claims the interview is copyrighted and asks for master copies of the ad so that they can be destroyed.

A spokeswoman for the Carnahan campaign did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

By 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, however, the ad had been removed from the campaign website with a message stating, “The interview with Roy Blunt that Fox News doesn’t want you to see has been temporarily removed. Check back soon.” (A copy remained on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website into Thursday afternoon.)

Media lawyer Jean Maneke, of The Maneke Law Group in Kansas City, said Carnahan’s campaign is likely to use a “fair use” defense against Fox’s claims. Under federal law, copyrighted work can be used for teaching, news reporting and under other certain circumstances, including criticism and comment.

In this case, the court will have to answer the following questions, Maneke said:

“Would this constitute criticism of the production, or would it constitute a comment on the copyrighted material used?”

Another media lawyer, Mary Ann Wymore, of Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale in St. Louis, said the fact that Blunt himself never speaks in the ad could hinder the campaign’s defense.

“Fox has an argument to say, ‘You only took the questions and not the answers,’” she said.

Neither Maneke nor Wymore is affiliated with the parties in the suit.

Blunt addressed the lawsuit during a press conference in Kansas City on Thursday, where he announced an endorsement from the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ political action committee.

“This is one campaign where one side thinks they can say whatever they want to say,” he said.

The suit is Fox News Network, LLC and Christopher Wallace v. Robin Carnahan For Senate, Inc., 4:10-cv-00906-GAF.

Staff writer Scott Lauck contributed information to this report.