Dave Itzkoff reported Tuesday for The New York Times that corporate executives at Fox Television in Hollywood have never told the producers of "The Simpsons" to knock off the mockery of Fox News, even as it suggests FNC viewers are racists:
Lately “The Simpsons” has been taking potshots at its corporate siblings at Fox News. An episode shown last week, called “The Fool Monty,” opened on a helicopter supposedly belonging to that cable news channel and bearing the slogan “Fox News: Not Racist, But #1 With Racists.”
In a “Simpsons” episode that ran on Sunday night, called “How Munched Is That Birdie in the Window,” the helicopter reappeared — this time in the show’s opening credits, and with a new slogan: “Fox News: Unsuitable for Viewers Under 75.”
The “Simpsons” producers could not let that remark stand, so they rushed their second Fox News joke into Sunday’s episode — so late in the production process that the gag could be inserted only into the version shown in North America but not into versions shown in foreign markets or on the Internet.
Executive producer Al Jean said “Both ends of it benefit the ultimate News Corp. agenda. We’re happy to have a little feud with Bill O’Reilly. That’s a very entertaining thing for us.”
What's left out of that Hollywood equation is whether Fox News viewers appreciate the satire, that they're most likely racists in the Obama era.
