The Fox News Network has filed suit against Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Robin Carnahan's campaign for an ad that, the network claims, makes it appear as if Fox News Host Chris Wallace endorsed Carnahan.
The suit was filed by the network and Wallace on Sept. 15 in Kansas City, Mo., by the firm Lathrop and Gage LLP. It claims Carnahan's campaign is guilty of copyright infringement, invasion of privacy and invasion of the right of publicity. The suit reads:
In a smear ad against political rival Roy Blunt, Defendant Robin Carnahan for Senate, Inc. usurped proprietary footage from the Fox News Network to [make] it appear - falsely - that FNC and Christopher Wallace, one of the nation's most respected political journalists, are endorsing Robin Carnahan's campaign for United State Senate.
The complaint was originally reported by The Hollywood Reporter and refers to a Jan. 15, 2006, interview that Wallace conducted with Blunt. During the interview, Wallace asked Blunt, "Are you the one to clean up the House?" According to the complaint, Fox alleges that the inclusion of the video in Carnahan's ad "harmed the value of the original work by compromising its apparent objectivity."
The ad, in light of the complaint, has been removed from Carnahan's website and from YouTube.
Update 8:08 p.m. ET: The Carnahan campaign released a statement regarding the lawsuit, saying, "We stand behind our ad," and that "it's unclear why Fox News refuses to stand by its own content." Carnahan campaign spokesman Linden Zakula also confirmed that the ad is still running on cable and network stations statewide.
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