Roger Friedman Fired by Fox Over Bootleg Wolverine Review
Posted on April 6, 2009
Roger Friedman was fired by News Corp. after he posted a review of an illegally obtained copy of Wolverine that had been leaked onto the Internet. Wolverine is made by 20th Century Fox, which had called in the FBI to investigate the leak of the film.
Studio execs began to hear about Friedman's post Friday and called for the matter to be addressed by its sister company, though stopped short of asking for Friedman's ouster. The studio's statement said: "We've just been made aware that Roger Friedman, a freelance columnist who writes Fox 411 on Foxnews.com -- an entirely separate company from 20th Century Fox -- watched on the Internet and reviewed a stolen and unfinished version of 'X-Men Organs: Wolverine.' This behavior is reprehensible and we condemn this act categorically -- whether the review is good or bad."What in the world was Friedman thinking? He reviews a bootleg copy of a movie made by his employer's sister company, then goes on and on about how great illegal downloads are? He was really asking for it.Calling Foxnews.com an entirely separate company from 20th Century Fox was an interesting choice of words, given that they're sibling companies.
It took another day -- and a torrent of negative press aimed at News Corp. in the blogging community -- before News Corp. took action. Late Saturday night, News Corp. released a statement saying: "Roger Friedman's views in no way reflect the views of News Corp. We, along with 20th Century Fox Film Corp., have been a consistent leader in the fight against piracy and have zero tolerance for any action that encourages and promotes piracy. When we advised Fox News of the facts they took immediate action, removed the post, and promptly terminated Mr. Friedman."