(SYOP 7/16/08) In an unprecedented legal move that should shakeup the dictionary industry already under siege by critics and linguists, Satire - the word and its definition -- has filed suit against The New Yorker for classifying its cartoon depiction of Barack and Michele Obama as satire.
"Words can no longer stand by and let the media abuse them without retribution," said Satire's lawyer, Noah Webster VI. "Words have rights too. But more importantly, they have real meaning and represent to people the truth. The courts have said so."
Webster, who successfully defended Truth in "Cheney vs Last Throes," "Fox vs News" and the landmark, "Funny vs Dane Cook," is suing The New Yorker under the "Is" law -- named after former President Bill Clinton's "It depends what the meaning of 'is' is" triangulation of the linking verb in his attempt to weasel out of an admission of an affair -- which set a legal standard for words and phrases, legislating proper usage and criminalizing most perversions of proper terminology.
Not since the class action law suit enjoined by the words "Independent," "Logic" and "Journalist" against Bill O'Reilly, has the meaning and intention of words been challenged in the courts as strongly.
Webster, who once represented...READ THE REST OF THE STORY HERE
Steve Young is an award-winning TV writer and author, blogging at Steveyoungonpolitics.com