Joan Rivers dropped from Fox after criticising Sarah Palin
Fox News, the News Corp owned TV network, has been accused of cancelling an appearance of comedian Joan Rivers after she called Sarah Palin ‘stupid’ and said it was right to ‘blame” her for the Arizona shooting outrage.
Palin, a Fox presenter, has been heavily supported by the station. Rivers, spoke out on TMZ where she was asked if Palin would make a good president.
She replied ,”I think Sarah Palin is an amazing woman. I think she represents everything strong a woman can be, and I think she should go someplace – to another planet – to show them, and get out of our face," she said.
When asked if Palin should be blamed for the attack in Tuscon she said: “They're right to blame Sarah for the shootings. Go look at her website. This woman is encouraging sandbaggers to reload ... this woman is just stupid and a threat.”
Following the screening of the interview Rivers then says she got a call telling her that a scheduled appearance on the show ‘Fox and Friends’ had been cancelled. She had been due to appear on the Fox talk show to promote her new reality TV show ‘Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best’ which also stars her daughter.
River told CNN that her agent got a call cancelling her appearance: “So now we call it Fox and Former Friends. They said to our PR lady it was because of what we said about Miss Palin.”
She also Tweeted about the row, “DON'T PISS OFF SARAH PALIN. She's apparently 'very powerful.”
Fox deny the allegations saying the cancellation was down to a booking mix-up and Rivers should have been invited to appear on Friday edition of ‘Fox and Friends’, an invitation which still stands. However, pundits dismiss this offer as damage limitation.
In the UK the row will heighten anxiety about News Corp's proposed takeover of BSKYB.