Fox News Columnist Canned for Advocating Illegal Downloading

Fox News entertainment columnist Roger Friedman was fired for advocating the watching of illegally pirated television and movies for free online. After finding the as-of-yet unreleased Wolverine film online, Friedman posted a positive review of it and wrote Friday about the great variety of free streaming media that is available online. That article has since been deleted.

Friedman was apparently surprised at how easy it is to find pirated movies online, and how widely available they are online, and raved about it in his "Fox 411" column. Big mistake. Rupert Murdoch and News Corp., like all major Hollywood Studios, take piracy very, very seriously, as evidenced by his immediate dismissal. Fox News is owned by News Corp., which also happens to own 20th Century Fox and Fox Television, so you can see why they would be concerned when one of their own starts encouraging the downloading of illegal materials online. The FBI is now investigating how 20th Century Fox's big summer blockbuster, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, managed to find it's way online.

In addition to his review of the Wolverine film, Friedman also posted:

"I did find the whole top 10 [movies in theaters], plus TV shows, commercials, videos, everything, all streaming away. It took really less than seconds to start playing it all right onto my computer. I could have downloaded all of it but really, who has the time or the room? Later tonight I may finally catch up with Paul Rudd in I Love You, Man. It’s so much easier than going out in the rain!"

Fox was reportedly quick to act. Roger Ailes, who oversees Fox News, deleted the post after 20th Century Fox contacted him about it. Then Ailes immediately fired Friedman as a freelance Fox News entertainment writer.

Friedman had written the "Fox 411" column for more than a decade at FoxNews.com. News Corp. issued a statement:

"Roger Friedman’s views in no way reflect the views of News Corporation. We, along with 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, have been a consistent leader in the fight against piracy and have zero tolerance for any action that encourages and promotes piracy. Once we learned of Roger Friedman’s post we asked Fox News to remove it, which they did immediately."

20th Century Fox also issued a statement:

"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 Orgins: Wolverine. This behavior is reprehensible and we condemn this act categorically — whether the review is good or bad."