FoxNews Columnist Fired Over "Wolverine" Review

[SBrooks1]

Hilarious

FoxNews columnist Roger Friedman recently downloaded an illegal copy of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," reviewed the film and then posted that review on the FoxNews website. In his article, which has already been taken down, he claims that the movie is so good that 20th Century Fox does not need to worry about the film appearing online early.

In just a few short paragraphs Friedman not only admitted to downloading the film illegally, but he also disrespected the industry and condoned grabbing stolen films off the internet. Since both FoxNews and 20th Century Fox are owned by NewsCorp, it wasn't going to be long before Friedman would have to face the consequences.

DeadlineHollywood is now reporting that FoxNews took swift and severe actions. Roger Ailes, who overseas FoxNews, deleted the offending post after he was contacted by 20th Century Fox and then fired Friedman as a freelance FoxNews entertainment writer. The move was done with the full support of NewsCorp.

A FoxNews source revealed: "He promoted piracy. He basically suggested that viewing a stolen film is OK, which is absolutely intolerable. So we fired him. Fox News acted promptly on all fronts."

http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=12870

[tommyboy81]

Guess he thought he would get brownie points for giving an A+++++++++ super fantastic review.

[OrlandoEastwood]

Originally Posted by tommyboy81

Guess he thought he would get brownie points for giving an A+++++++++ super fantastic review.

HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa good one.

[Mike53421]

Viral marketing at its finest.

It's kinda funny how many people who have mentioned this leak who don't know about the unfinished CGI and all.

[P@t_Mtl]

Originally Posted by Mike53421

Viral marketing at its finest.

It's kinda funny how many people who have mentioned this leak who don't know about the unfinished CGI and all.

That's is pretty much what I am thinking as well.

[Trix]

My question now is, with word of the illegal copy hitting mainstream news, how many MORE people are going to show interest and download it? Let's have a look here...

1) A non-final, unedited copy of the movie is leaked to the internet. (This is the only version I know of so far.)
2) A non-salaried freelance writer reports about it, only to be fired, which makes headlines.

Maybe it's because I don't think reporters are this stupid, maybe it's because I distrust Fox with every inch of my soul. But, something seems extremely manipulative here...

[jadedeath]

His fatal flaw was that he didn't blame the the other media conglomerates for making him do it. *LOL*

Logan

[krazeyeyez]

Originally Posted by jadedeath

His fatal flaw was that he didn't blame the the other media conglomerates for making him do it. *LOL*

Logan

lmFao rofl, and lmao

[owa]

I didn't read a review of it but in one of the columns, I read that one of them had downloaded it to check it out and I couldn't believe he did that or wrote that.

[tommyboy81]

Originally Posted by Trix

My question now is, with word of the illegal copy hitting mainstream news, how many MORE people are going to show interest and download it? Let's have a look here...

1) A non-final, unedited copy of the movie is leaked to the internet. (This is the only version I know of so far.)
2) A non-salaried freelance writer reports about it, only to be fired, which makes headlines.

Maybe it's because I don't think reporters are this stupid, maybe it's because I distrust Fox with every inch of my soul. But, something seems extremely manipulative here...

Hmm? Setup to give it more hype? Pay the man a bunch of money (1 year salary) to be fired and get hired back quietly a year later.

[PH3AR]

He thought the movies was so good he got fired over it, so my expectations for Wolverine are higher!

[tommyboy81]

Originally Posted by PH3AR

He thought the movies was so good he got fired over it, so my expectations for Wolverine is higher!

Maybe he said the movie was going to make so much money Fox won't need to make another movie the rest of the year.

[Objectivity]

Originally Posted by tommyboy81

Maybe he said the movie was going to make so much money Fox won't need to make another movie the rest of the year.

Friedman has his own personal agendas and has no problems using his soapbox to voice his opinion, even knowingly publishing false information to cause harm to people he didn't like.

Columnists are there to provide their opinions and bias isn't really a factor - a neutral columnist is often a boring columnist - but Friedman has probably had a a firing coming for a long time. If it isn't this time, it will be the next time, and there will be a next time.

I could see a situation where a columnist used the Wolverine leak to make some comment about the film industry and how it should either a) stop fighting the inevitable and find a way to use these online sites to their advantage or b) use this leak as a way to set sharing back to the stoneages, with realistic examples of how to do it.

I don't think Friedman sees a big enough picture to do either one.

[Heart_Collector]

Any professional would know better. Maybe something is up.

[Diesel]

raise your hand if you didnt see that coming

now slap yourself with that hand

[supersix4]

lol I take foxnews with a grain of salt... THE HUGEST GRAIN ever.

Originally Posted by krazeyeyez

LMAO the terms FOX and NEWS should never be used in the same sentence, and msnbc isn't any better just slightly less of a joke, i envision anyone who watches those channels for more then a laugh as wearing tin foil hats, and watching E! all day for the real important stuff

its the new accepted tin hat

[PA_Kid]

Just to be clear, his firing didn't have anything to do with the review of the movie - it had to do with his illegal downloading of the movie to review it (and most likely some comments that appeared to encourage illegal downloading).

There seems to be some confusion as to whether he really was fired, but I completely agree with Fox on this one. If he wanted to review it, he should have done it the correct way. For Fox to not take action in this case would have made it seem like they were ok with the illegal downloading.

[raskal66]

Originally Posted by PA_Kid

Just to be clear, his firing didn't have anything to do with the review of the movie - it had to do with his illegal downloading of the movie to review it (and most likely some comments that appeared to encourage illegal downloading).

There seems to be some confusion as to whether he really was fired, but I completely agree with Fox on this one. If he wanted to review it, he should have done it the correct way. For Fox to not take action in this case would have made it seem like they were ok with the illegal downloading.

You're mostly right there. The bone that News Corp. had to pick with Friedman's article you are right on about. However Friedman's article didn't condone the illegal downloading explicitly, he just fessed up to doing it. News Corp. alleges, and rightfully so IMHO that by reviewing the pirated version of the movie, he is de facto condoning it because it could draw people to the pirated material on the internet. 20th Century Fox doesn't want people to watch the Internet copy because the leak could cost them millions at the box office. We had one entity of News Corp. get material stolen and put online illegally and then a columnist from another entity of News Corp drawing attention to how easy it is to get it. Any media conglomerate would have done the same thing.

[fatediesel]

It's still unclear if he was actually fired. From IMDB:
It was unclear, even as of today (Monday), whether FoxNews.com's entertainment columnist Roger Friedman had been fired for writing a review of 20th Century Fox's X-Men Origins: Wolverine based on a pirated copy of a workprint that appeared online last week. Although Friedman had praised what he saw, News Corp, Fox's corporate parent, said that he had been "terminated." Twentieth Century Fox issued a statement saying that Friedman's decision to watch and review the movie was "reprehensible, and we condemn this act categorically -- whether the review is good or bad." But as of this morning (Monday), Friedman's blog was still posted on FoxNews.com (although without the Wolverine review). Friedman himself told ABC News, "There was no action taken against me." And the HuffingtonPost.com said that Friedman will be meeting with News Corp executives this morning to discuss the matter.

http://www.imdb.com/news/ns0000003/

Maybe calmer heads prevailed and they just had him take down the review from his blog.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by fatediesel

It's still unclear if he was actually fired. From IMDB:
It was unclear, even as of today (Monday), whether FoxNews.com's entertainment columnist Roger Friedman had been fired for writing a review of 20th Century Fox's X-Men Origins: Wolverine based on a pirated copy of a workprint that appeared online last week. Although Friedman had praised what he saw, News Corp, Fox's corporate parent, said that he had been "terminated." Twentieth Century Fox issued a statement saying that Friedman's decision to watch and review the movie was "reprehensible, and we condemn this act categorically -- whether the review is good or bad." But as of this morning (Monday), Friedman's blog was still posted on FoxNews.com (although without the Wolverine review). Friedman himself told ABC News, "There was no action taken against me." And the HuffingtonPost.com said that Friedman will be meeting with News Corp executives this morning to discuss the matter.

http://www.imdb.com/news/ns0000003/

Maybe calmer heads prevailed and they just had him take down the review from his blog.

He should be fired. And brought up on charges. IMHO.