Articles

Fox News, LL Cool J feud over Palin interview

Category: National Published on Wednesday, 07 April 2010 11:37 Written by NNPA News Service

(NNPA)—Fox News and LL Cool J found themselves at odds during the week of March 29 over the cable channel’s use of the New York rapper’s image to promote a new show—one on which he won’t be appearing.

LL COOL J

The news channel aired an ad promoting Sarah Palin’s new show, “Real American Stories,” featuring an image of LL Cool J. However, he claims he never gave permission for an old interview to be used for the ad, and was never contacted about being on the new show.

“Fox lifted an old interview I gave in 2008 to someone else and are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote Sarah Palin’s Show. WOW,” he posted on his Twitter account.

A rep for LL Cool J said, “Contrary to what was reported, LL Cool J was never scheduled to be a guest on ‘Real American Stories’ with Sarah Palin this week. The show had planned to use an interview from 2008 that was being re-purposed without LL’s permission.”

Fox says it owned the original interview footage and not LL Cool J, and they didn’t need his permission to use it. The network nevertheless decided to remove LL Cool J from the ad.

“Real American Stories’ features uplifting tales about overcoming adversity and we believe [LL Cool J’s] interview fits that criteria,” a rep from Fox News said in a statement. “However, as it appears that [LL Cool J] does not want to be associated with a program that could serve as an inspiration to others, we are cutting his interview from the special and wish him the best with his fledgling acting career.”

(Reprinted from the Afro American.)