14 DAY TRIAL // Roger Friedman, entertainment blogger, had been a longtime reporter with Fox News before he decided to review the unfinished, illegal, leaked version of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and then post the material online. Now, following intense backlash on the Internet and pressure from 20th Century Fox, Friedman has been let go, RopeOfSilicone informs.
“Fox News representatives and Roger Friedman met today and mutually agreed to part ways immediately. Fox News appreciates Mr. Friedman’s ten years of contributions to building foxnews.com and wishes him success in his future endeavors. Mr. Friedman is grateful to his colleagues for their friendship and support over the past decade.” Fox News said in a statement released to the aforementioned source.
The review of the unfinished film appeared online a day after the “Wolverine” leak, and was picked up by movie bloggers in just a matter of instants. The great majority of them turned on Friedman for posting it, despite the fact that he had nothing but kind words for the film and the movie studio behind it. Not only was he disrespecting the work of so many actors and people involved in it, ruining everything for the fans in the process, but he was also making a stand for piracy, it was pinpointed.
Oddly enough, Fox News and 20th Century Fox are both divisions of parent company News Corp, which literally means that Friedman was sabotaging his own employer by posting details on a film that an affiliate company was desperately trying to keep under wraps. The review in itself seemed to speak in favor of piracy here and there, which only made the matter worse.
“I did find the whole top 10 [movies in theaters], plus TV shows, commercials, videos, everything, all streaming away. It took really less than seconds to start playing it all right onto my computer. I could have downloaded all of it but really, who has the time or the room? Later tonight I may finally catch up with Paul Rudd in ‘I Love You, Man.’ It’s so much easier than going out in the rain!” Friedman wrote.
The “Wolverine” review has been deleted in the meantime, but 20th Century Fox is still unhappy that such a thing could have occurred in the first place, let alone with such a famous and experienced columnist as Friedman was. “This behavior is reprehensible and we condemn this act categorically – whether the review is good or bad.” the movie studio also stressed in a press statement.