Fox: Your Free Market All-Stars

I remember the first time I heard someone mention the bizarre irony of Fox TV's reputation as the envelope-pushers of the airwaves. They market the most titillating and tasteless shows around. Yet at the same time, their ersatz journalists make a fortune decrying the moral decline of the nation. Evil, but brilliant.

The glamorous image of a Hollywood scriptwriter's lifestyle as an endless round of leisurely lunches and celebrity parties has been exposed as a lie by a class action lawsuit filed against one of America's biggest television networks.

Fox TV is accused of overseeing and airing shows that were produced by writers who endured intolerable working conditions, being forced to skip meals, submit fake time cards and work more than 80 hours a week in cramped and overheated offices.

Reminds of the punchline to that old theater joke: "What, and leave show business?"