Wolverine Movie Review Leads To Fox And Friedman Parting Ways

Fox News has parted ways with one of its columnists after he posted a review of an illegally downloaded copy of the upcoming Wolverine movie. Roger Friedman posted the review on his online column Fox 411 last week, shortly after X-Men Origins: Wolverine was leaked online. The film isn't due in theatres until May 1st. In his review, the columnist joked about how easy it was to illegally download content from the internet. He even suggested that he might try to catch up on a few more films due out this summer by downloading them the same way he did the leaked Wolverine film. Fox News, in a move to show that the company has a "zero tolerance policy" towards video piracy, quickly removed the review from its website. Over the weekend, Fox issued a statement indicating that Friedman had been fired for actions that promoted piracy. Fox Corporation stated, "Roger Friedman's views in no way reflect the views of News Corporation. We, along with 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, have been a consistent leader in the fight against piracy and have zero tolerance for any action that encourages and promotes piracy." When questioned about Fox's statement this weekend by ABC News, Friedman responded, "There was no action taken against me." Fox News had yet to issue another statement in regard to Friedman's views until later this afternoon. In a report by Entertainment Weekly, Fox announced that they had in fact parted ways with Friedman. Fox News went on to thank Friedman for his decade of contributions to building Foxnews.com and wished Friedman well in his future endeavors. Somehow, I have a feeling that means a book deal is coming up very soon.