ABC censors "Boston Legal" ep about Fox News — IRONY ALERT

Fox News: no critics allowed

Fox News may report only one side of a story, but at least critics have always had creative license to lace into the roost of Bill O'Reilly. Until now. AlterNet reports that an episode of "Boston Legal" slated to air on Sunday night on ABC has been "scrubbed" of all pejorative references to Fox News and O'Reilly. Top ABC executives heavily censored an earlier version of the script, in which a teacher calls Fox News "hate speech" and installs a "Fox Blocker" on every TV set in his school. A side-by-side comparison of the two versions of the script reveals it has been stripped of any references to the network. The Sunday episode is, ironically, about free speech.

Neither ABC nor David Kelley, the show's creator, would comment on the changes. The script also contained excerpts from "Outfoxed," an anti-Fox documentary by indie filmmaker Robert Greenwald which argues that the cable channel has an explicit conservative agenda. The "Outfoxed" excerpts will be included in the episode, although ABC would not allow Greenwald to buy ad time for his film to air during the episode. "The door has been closed in our face," said the film's distributor.

-- Julia Scott

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html

Bostin Legal is one of my favorite shows. Too bad they succumbed to network pressure! They've already gotten some good digs in against the Bush administration.

I hope to catch up with Boston Legal during reruns — I've been TiVoing Nip/Tuck instead and F/X only shows the eps once (unlike most of cable, they don't show N/T a number of times during the week).