A couple of years ago, when Fox News sued Al Franken over the use of the trademark "Fair and Balanced" on his book cover, many in the MSM were happy to play it up big time. Franken's Lies book shot to #1 with the help of all the free publicity.

Today, the tables may be turning. How will the media react if Al Franken decides to file a lawsuit of his own against a conservative writer? According to Peter Schweizer, author of a new book Do As I Say (Not As I Do), Franken is threatening to sue him over material in his book that Franken's lawyer says is "legally actionable."

In addition to Franken, Schweizer's book targets the Clintons, Michael Moore, Barbra Streisand, Noam Chomsky, and others for not apparently living by the beliefs and ideals that they espouse.

According to this NewsMax article, Schweizer said on Wednesday's (November 3, 2005) O'Reilly Factor on Fox News:

"Before the book came out, [Franken's] agent, Jonathan Lazear, called my editor at Doubleday and said they consider the material in the book to be 'legally actionable.' They then followed up with a letter demanding to know where I got all this, 'private information' on Al Franken."

According to Schweizer, Franken is peeved over his reporting that Franken has hired 112 employees over the years and only one was black. That percentage would be reportedly lower than the enrollment of blacks at Bob Jones University, a target of Franken in his Lies book. One of the themes of the book was that Republicans might be "racist."

Added Schweizer (emphasis mine),

"They haven't questioned the validity of the information. They want to know how I got access to private information. And the interesting thing, Bill, is they've said nothing publicly. This is all done behind the scenes. He's not challenged one thing."

It would make tons of sense that Franken would not want a lawsuit like this to be publicized. Look at what a lawsuit did for him a couple years ago. It was the best thing to happen to his career since being hired at Saturday Night Live nearly thirty years earlier.

Stay tuned.

—Dave Pierre is the creator of TheMediaReport.com and a contributor to NewsBusters.