On Friday, Fox News columnist Roger Friedman did the unthinkable, posting a review of an illegally downloaded version of Fox’s big summer movie Wolverine, and all but recommending his readers skip the theater and do the same. The outrage over this hypocrisy was instant, with this site and many others calling for his firing. More on that here.
And at first, it seemed like Fox was doing the right thing. Saturday night they issued a statement claiming that Friedman had been fired. Everyone nodded their heads and went back about their business. Now though, the situation is suddenly much less clear.
Friedman tells Variety that he hasn’t been terminated and from the sounds of things, it’s business as usual for him over at Fox News. In fact Fox now seems to be backing away from their initial statement entirely. Today they issued this statement in place of their affirmation of Friedman’s firing: “This is an internal matter that we're not prepared to discuss at this time.”
Something stinks here. More on this story as it develops.
Update! More recent reports confirm that Roger Friedman, despite Fox's initial statements to the contrary, has not been fired. Instead of acting swiftly and decisively, Fox has allowed Friedman to stay on and today they'll meet with him to allow him to plead his case.
Update 2! Ok, he's really gone this time. We think. Fox has issued the following statement: "Fox News representatives and Roger Friedman met today and mutually agreed to part ways immediately. Fox News appreciates Mr. Friedman's ten years of contributions to building foxnews.com and wishes him success in his future endeavors. Mr. Friedman is grateful to his colleagues for their friendship and support over the past decade." Mutual? Whatever happened to "we fired his ass"?
