CNN offers to back Fox station’s lawsuit against NBC

Taking amicus
to a unique level for a media entity, CNN has offered a Fox-owned
station in Dallas up to $50,000 in legal expenses if either it or the
Fox-owned stations together decide to sue NBC or the two NBC-owned
stations that rebroadcast the station’s footage of a dramatic truck
chase last week. CNN noted that it had the right to broadcast the
footage since the Fox station, KDFW-TV, is a CNN affiliate. But
NBC-owned KXAS-TV in Dallas also used the footage, as did WCAU-TV, an
NBC-TV station in Philadelphia. As reported by Electronic Media
magazine on Thursday, CNN sent a letter to Fox last Tuesday offering
to defray legal costs if Fox decides to sue. The letter, signed by Fox
TV Stations Chairman Mitchell Stern, said: “CNN takes the concerns of
its affiliates seriously and is committed [to] working with its
affiliates to resolve this situation.” An NBC spokesman replied that the
company would defend use of the footage on “fair-use grounds.”