UPDATE: Roger Friedman Fired for Downloading 'Wolverine'
Filed under: New Releases, Celebrities and Controversy, 20th Century Fox
When Fox News gossip columnist Roger Friedman caused a mini-scandal the other day by casually mentioning he'd illegally downloaded X-Men Origins: Wolverine from the Internet -- and then proceeding to review it! -- a lot of us assumed he'd get away with it. Yeah, 20th Century Fox was talking a big game about chasing pirates and punishing downloaders, but we didn't think they'd go after a high-profile writer who works for their same parent company. Well. Seldom have I been so pleased to be wrong. As first reported by Nikke Finke on Saturday and confirmed by a statement from Fox parent company News Corporation late Saturday night, Roger Friedman has been fired. News Corp.'s statement was blunt: "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. When we advised Fox News of the facts they took immediate action, removed the post, and promptly terminated Mr. Friedman."
Having once been fired myself for making a dumb mistake, I do feel some sympathy for Friedman for having the same thing happen to him. He shouldn't have been fired for this -- he should have been fired a long time ago for generally being a boob, and for being a barnacle on the already-unseemly underbelly of entertainment journalism. (I invite you to peruse Defamer's Friedman-related archives for examples of his prior offenses.) Nailing him for this is sort of like convicting Al Capone for tax evasion.
But Fox didn't have much choice. If they're going to strike real fear in the hearts of movie pirates, they need to make it clear that NO piracy will be tolerated. Friedman gave them the perfect opportunity to send this message. They're undoubtedly hoping that the people who steal movies will see this and think, "Holy crap, they even went after one of their own corporate siblings! What chance do we have?? Abort! Abort!" And they'll scurry around their under-lit basement headquarters, frantically deleting files and erasing hard drives. Fox is now like the good-guy cop in the movie who doggedly pursues the villain even though it's his own brother.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-06-2009 @ 10:10AM
Eric said...
I saw the film a friends house. It is bad. no respect for the source material at all. Story is lame and uninspired. How wolverine loses his memories is just dumb and really makes no sense at all. It just insulting to the franchise and to the character.
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4-08-2009 @ 7:52AM
C.A. said...
You're fired!
4-06-2009 @ 10:17AM
Kurt Munro said...
you i jus downloaded wolverine with the internet and it sucks yo.
hey kids, stop all the downloading;
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4-06-2009 @ 11:07AM
filmsuki said...
Guaranteed, all the people outraged at what he's done have at least 2 films/shows/games being bit torrented at home, right now.
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4-06-2009 @ 11:30AM
Rich said...
I am glad he got fired over it and I am glad Fox got the balls to do it.
As for the movie, all this isn't gonna matter at all. The movie is going to suck. I haven't seen it but it is screaming that it will. Its being hyped all to hell (first clue) and something has seemed off about it from the begining (second clue).
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4-06-2009 @ 11:58AM
DyingAtheist said...
I must admit I'm disappointed at the stance you've taken Mr Snider. It's wrong to direct punishment based on your personal distaste for this man rather then for the crime he commited. I'm not defending piracy, but what he did was not wrong. He is reviewing a cut of the film that his readers want to know about. It's the same as io9.com listing the failings of the leaked cut. He is not condoning piracy, he is simply providing his readers with what they want, information on an upcoming movie. He had no intention of avoiding paying for the film (which is the goal of real pirates), he was simply reveiwing what amounts to leaked footage from a film set. If you condemn him because of your personal feelings, you come across like a bent cop who plants evidence because you know the suspect is guilty.
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4-07-2009 @ 12:37AM
eugene said...
Heh? He personally profited through pirating and if he hadn't been fired it would have prompted other hacks, I mean reviewers, to do the same in order to have the next scoop.
He most definitely DID promote pirating.
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4-06-2009 @ 1:38PM
BloodwerK said...
I never cheer when someone loses their job...
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4-06-2009 @ 2:14PM
A said...
This was far from a dumb mistake. Friedman knew exactly what he was doing and he knew it was illegal, yet he still flaunted it like he was above punishment... Dumb, yes. Mistake, no.
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4-06-2009 @ 5:52PM
Batzarro said...
He should have said he saw it at his uncle's house. That's a dumb move right there.
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4-06-2009 @ 5:50PM
MJ said...
My heart goes out to people who are jobless but this man is a terrorist hurting many celebs with lies he has written and slaying movies he has not even seen. Fox News should hire people who know what they're doing.
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4-06-2009 @ 6:52PM
Janice said...
I like Fox News minus Roger Friedman. But I ignore his columns because its not Fair & Balances news but Shock & Crap.
BTW,job well done Mr.Snider.
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