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In reply to the discussion: Do you want to make heads explode at Fox News? [View all]
Laelth
(32,017 posts)The implied warranty of merchantability, and its more exacting cousin, the implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose, apply only to the sale of goods, and it is seems to me that "entertainment" is not a good because it is not a tangible object like a refrigerator. Perhaps I am wrong about that, but I would need to see some UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) case law applying these warranties to "entertainment" before I could make the logical leap required to sue the purveyors of Fox "News" for violating these implied warranties.
In addition, I note that the damages available to someone who sues a merchant for violating the UCC are quite limited. If the purveyors of Fox "News" were sued on this basis, and if the Plaintiffs won, the purveyors would be required to merely replace the defective product with one that was merchantable or fit for the particular purpose advertized. For example, if a merchant sells you a refrigerator that does not keep food cool, that merchant has violated the implied warranty of merchantability, and, if said merchant were successfully sued, said merchant would have to give you a refrigerator that actually did cool food, but that would likely be the full extent of the damages that said merchant would have to pay. If the purpose of "news" is to honestly inform the viewer, and if "news" were a good that was covered by the UCC, and if a merchant sold you a defective news product like Fox "News" (that neither informed nor was honest), and if you sued said purveyor of alleged news and won, then the only thing the purveyor would have to do to compensate you would be to provide you with a news product that actually did honestly inform.
What would be the point? From an attorney's perspective, that lawsuit would not be worth the trouble of pursuing, and that probably explains why nobody has yet filed such a suit.
That said, I agree that Fox is deceitful and harmful to the political discourse and health of this republic. I just don't see how the UCC can help us in this case.
-Laelth
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