Fair and balanced

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"Fair and Balanced" is a trademarked slogan used by the American news broadcaster Fox News Channel. The slogan was originally used in conjunction with the phrase "Real Journalism."

Fox News defended the slogan in the wake of criticism. ^[1] Critics claim that the network does not practice what it preaches and that the network has a conservative bias. See Also: Fox News Channel controversies ^[2]

Author and comedian Al Franken used the slogan in the subtitle for his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. In the book, he accuses Fox News Channel of bias. Fox immediately sued, claiming that it had a trademark on the phrase. ^[3] Fox News dropped the lawsuit after Judge Denny Chin refused their request for an injunction (see Fox v. Franken).

In December 2003, Fox News found itself on the other end of a legal battle concerning the slogan, when Alternet filed a cancellation petition with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to have Fox's trademark rescinded as "notoriously misdescriptive." Legal proceedings relating to Alternet's petition continued throughout 2004. Alternet included the documentary film Outfoxed as supporting evidence in its case. ^[4] Alternet lost its attempt to have the trademark rescinded. ^[5]

One possible explanation for the phrase lies in its relation to other media networks. Fox anchors often lambast the "mainstream" media for having a "liberal bias". In this light, the Fox News Channel could be seen as a conservative counterpart to the "liberal media". Therefore, the network itself is not "fair and balanced" internally, but rather acts as a "balance" to the mainstream "liberal media".