FOX v. FITS? May 20, 2008
Posted by fitsnews in : Pop Culture, The Press , 9 comments
RUPERT MURDOCH’S ATTORNEYS ON THE WARPATH AGAINST SIC WILLIE
FITSNews - May 20, 2008 - We’re sure the army of intellectual property lawyers over at Twentieth Century Fox figured Columbia, S.C. was the last place they’d run into a First Amendment fight over allegedly “protected images” of actress Megan Fox.
We’re sure they just assumed that a tiny, inconsequential little website in an ig’nrant-ass little state like South Carolina would be duly intimidated by their form letter legalese, and would immediately comply with their demand to remove Ms. Fox’s picture from our website … perhaps even trembling a bit in our thigh-highs as we did so at their threat of “significant monetary liability.”
Well, we hate to break it to Rupert Murdoch & Co., but that’s just not how we roll. Nor is it how our attorneys roll.
Bottom line, if you’re going to come into our kitchen and demand that we retract, remove, replace or reword something we’ve posted, you better damn sure come with a lot more than an error-laden form letter basically threatening to bankrupt us if we don’t do what you’re asking.
Anyway, here’s what Twentieth Century Fox sent us last night: (more…)
La Socialista’s Screw Job
Posted by fitsnews in : SC Politics, The Press , 9 comments
THINK THEIR WAY … OR ELSE
FITSNews - May 20, 2008 - He may wear ascots and not know when to stop talking, but that doesn’t change the fact that SC Hotline’s Jeffrey Sewell can swing the biggest bat in the S.C. political blogoshere when he wants to. This morning, Sewell took out his Louisville Slugger and made our state’s biggest newspaper his personal piñata, detailing how The State newspaper (a.k.a. La Socialista ) likes to use its agenda-driven reporting and sanctimoniously over-the-top editorials in an effort to collect advertising revenue from the entities it bashes:
… SC Hotline has discovered that while The State’s newsroom and editorial board were both busy bashing the payday lending industry, the newspaper’s marketing department was using these attacks to try and convince the industry to advertise in the paper in an effort to counter its “distorted” information.
This major lapse in journalistic integrity is reminiscent of the mob-style tactics used by gangsters in movies like Goodfellas – repeatedly bullying an industry and then turning around and asking them for money so that they can fix all the damage they have done.
Sewell’s not just speculating, either. He has a copy of an actual letter sent by La Socialista’s marketing department which directs the recipient’s attention to a particularly nasty article the newspaper wrote, but then offers “a couple of ways the State can assist” them in “communicating a very important message” that will “educate those whose understanding may be distorted.”
Geez. This sort of “journalistic blackmail” is almost as bad as the pay-to-play legislative shakedown on payday lending that La Socialista chose not to cover. (more…)
We’re Down With OBB May 19, 2008
Posted by fitsnews in : SC Politics, The Press , add a comment
OUR GALS ARE CRAZY ‘BOUT THESE SHARP-DRESSED MEN (AND THEIR SISTER)
FITSNews - May 19, 2008 - We’ve always loved the blog Other Brooks Brothers. Its writers are smart, funny and consistently on message when it comes to the wasteful clusterfuck that is South Carolina state government. Like their column today in support of a spending cap, for example:
In a perfect world where government was responsible with taxpayers’ dollars and egos weren’t more important than ideology, we wouldn’t even have to have this debate. Government would do its job, take what it needed to do that job, and either return the excess to the people, put it away for a rainy day, or reduce tax rates for the following year.
Unfortunately, that’s not reality.
The reality is that state government in South Carolina grew 41% during the past three years. The General Assembly spent $1.5 billion in reserve funds leaving the state’s coffers depleted in an upcoming budget year that shows us expecting significant shortfalls.
Rock on, dudes. And by the way, we’re sorry that Sic Willie threatened not to link to your website anymore unless the gorgeous Mary Claire sent him a nudie pic. Needless to say, that was not representative of our editorial policy …
Meet Mande
Posted by fitsnews in : The Press , 6 comments
THE NEWEST FITS GAL PREPARES TO “FLIP THE WORD” FOR US
FITSNews - May 19, 2008 - One of the coolest things about running the hottest website in town is the fact that you get to work with some incredibly talented people … like Mande Wilkes (above ) for example, who’ll begin sashaying her original brand of irreverant, thought-provoking sass on the pages of FITSNews starting this week.
In addition to having a pair of scrumptuous eyes that could probably melt your monitor if they wanted to, Mande is hands down one of the most gifted young writers we’ve seen in a long time. Check out her stellar “57 Things” if you don’t believe us, because it’s probably the best web-bio we’ve ever read. Our favorites?
12. Home Alone 1 & 2 are the zenith of movie-making, and every movie that has followed or will follow will never live up to the greatness that is Home Alone.
17. I can so distinguish a Coke from a Pepsi.
27. Feminism has devolved into a nasty self-pitying cult. Perhaps it was always thus.
33. I feel put upon when I have to press 1 for English.
40. I feel like a fraud when I talk about Wi-Fi because I’ve no idea what the “Fi” stands for.
A former runway model and law school grad who lives in Myrtle Beach, Mande has earned our undying admiration not only for her wicked verbage, but because she spells her name minus the obligatory redneck “y.” Oh, she also starts a lot of her sentences with the word “seriously,” too. Which we totally heart. (more…)
FITSNews Isn’t Backing Down May 4, 2008
Posted by fitsnews in : SC Politics, The Press , 20 comments
STANDING UP FOR THE FIRST AMENDMENT AND AGAINST PRIOR RESTRAINT
FITSNews - May 4, 2008 - Attorneys for State Sen. Randy Scott have been blowing up the FITSNews mailbox over the last 24 hours, sending us three requests to remove the controversial recordings of Sen. Scott cursing and demanding special treatment after he was arrested last month for driving under the influence. The recordings, which were enjoined from publication by S.C. Circuit Court Judge James Williams, Jr., can be found on this post.
Here is a copy of one of the e-mails we received from Sen. Scott’s attorney:
Will,
I see that you have now added commentary to the posting of the tapes. Please remove the post from FITS NEWS per the Order of the Court.
Robby Robbins
While our founding editor Sic Willie isn’t a lawyer, he does play one on the Internet. Accordingly, he drafted the following response to Mr. Robbins’ request … (more…)
Danka … April 30, 2008
Posted by fitsnews in : The Press , 2 comments
… FOR A RECORD-SETTING MONTH, PEOPLE
FITSNews - April 30, 2008 - We don’t believe it either, but apparently almost a quarter of a million people visited our little website this month - a new record for FITSNews as well as an entirely unnecessary ego-enhancer for our founding editor, Sic Willie, who will no doubt be even more insufferable than usual around the office today.
In related news, the S.C. Department of Commerce issued a statement this morning saying that workplace productivity across the state was down “almost eleventy kabillion percent” for the month of April due to a “unexplained surge in non-productive Internet activity.”
Alright, we made that last part up, which we’re sure uber-hottie Commerce spokesbabe Kara Borie will no doubt confirm if you give her a call … something Sic Willie does on the hour, every hour. R-r-r-r-r-r-a-w-w-w-w, baby!!!
Anyway, to all y’all who made our record month possible, we’d like to take this opportunity to say ‘thanks.’ Especially to those two meth-heads in Loris, S.C. who agreed to spend all day randomly clicking on our ads provided we support their illegal and self-destructive habits. Meth-heads = Ka-Ching, people. Write that down somewhere …
It’s Good To Be Us April 2, 2008
Posted by fitsnews in : The Press , 2 comments
SPENDING ON ALTERNATIVE MEDIA SOARS …
FITSNews - April 2, 2008 - While all indications are that Egon Spengler (above) had it right when he told the Ghostbusters’ new receptionist “print is dead,” the same can’t be said for Internet media. In fact, online advertising is currently skyrocketing, enjoying a 22% surge last year at a time when traditional print advertising suffered its worst revenue drop in over fifty years. From today’s edition of the Advertising Specialty Institute:
A study released last week by research firm PQ Media, titled Alternative Media Forecast: 2008-2012, reports that marketing spending on online, digital and other forms of out-of-the-box advertising topped $73.43 billion in 2007, an increase of 22% compared to 2006. Furthermore, the trend is only expected to continue, with spending on nontraditional media eventually comprising 26.6% of all U.S. advertising and marketing dollars by 2012, the firm concludes.
Translation? We’re about to be even richer than we already are, which is pretty impressive considering our net worth was recently estimated at eleventy kabillion dollars. Now if we can just keep Sic Willie from paying any more visits to this chick, we might be able to maintain a profitable balance sheet … not to mention expand our collection of spores, molds and fungi.
