ABSTRACT

Summer 2007 was big for News Corp., owner of various Fox subsidiaries and one of the largest media conglomerates in the world. One celebrated event for the corporation was the global premiere of The Simpsons Movie, a theatrical fi lm based on the very long-running Fox network television series. As part of the massive publicity campaign for the movie, Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, appeared on a late July installment of the U.S. cable television program The Daily Show, hosted by Jon Stewart. At one point during the interview, they had this exchange:

Groening: We love biting the hand that feeds us [on The Simpsons]. We love attacking Fox. It’s really good. But let me clarify. There are many suction cups on the tentacles of the News Corp octopus.