Until July 12, 2004 the name of the show was The O'Franken Factor. That name was a jibe at Bill O'Reilly and his The O'Reilly Factor. O'Reilly is widely thought to have instigated Fox News Channel's lawsuit against Franken for using their trademarked phrase "fair and balanced", which was thrown out of court in summary judgment, but ended up giving publicity to Franken and his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. Franken said that he chose the title to "annoy and bait" O'Reilly into suing him again, thus generating additional publicity. That lawsuit never came, and on July 12, 2004, the program was renamed The Al Franken Show.
Franken described his show as taking place in a "Zero Spin Zone" where Franken pledges to tell the truth and there is "no spinning allowed." This is a parody of O'Reilly's characterization of the O'Reilly Factor as a "No-Spin Zone."
Read more about this topic: The Al Franken Show
Famous quotes containing the word factor:
“Children of the middle years do not do their learning unaffected by attendant feelings of interest, boredom, success, failure, chagrin, joy, humiliation, pleasure, distress and delight. They are whole children responding in a total way, and what they feel is a constant factor that can be constructive or destructive in any learning situation.”
—Dorothy H. Cohen (20th century)