The Washington Post reports that ABC News has just suspended John Green, the "Good Morning America" executive producer who couldn't resist using his abc.com email address to express his revulsion toward President Bush (and now, we find, toward former Secretary of State Madeline Albright as well.)
But way down at the end of the WP piece is something really interesting, though not in the way ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider meant it to be:
"Everyone who works at ABC News is unhappy with the situation because it reflects on all of us," Schneider said. But, he said, "I don't think the e-mails tell us anything about the show John Green was putting on the air every Saturday and Sunday, which is fair and balanced and down the middle."
Beg pardon? TCG isn't a lawyer, but beyond being laughably, patently inaccurate, ABC's assertion that it is "fair and balanced" would seem to infringe on Fox News Channel's rights to their legally-protected "Fair and Balanced" slogan. There's a reason slogans get copyrighted, after all.
If any legal-eagle types out there would care to submit an opinion on this, please email me!
