Maroon 5's Adam Levine goes to war with 'evil' Fox News
Singer demands the broadcaster to stop playing his music, prompting reprisals from the Murdoch channel
Sean Michaels
guardian.co.uk, Friday 21 October 2011 11.30 BST
Maroon 5's Adam Levine has entered a war of words with US broadcaster Fox News, which has been using the band's songs as background music. Levine described Fox as an "evil ****ing channel", prompting Fox to question Levine's right to describe his work as "music".
"Dear Fox News," Levine tweeted. "Don't play our music on your evil ****ing channel ever again. Thank you." It's unclear what set the singer off. Although he's a host on the talent show The Voice, on rival network NBC, Maroon 5 songs such as This Love and She Will Be Loved have soundtracked a thousand TV montages.
Fox supporters and pundits were quick paint Levine's remarks as a liberal smear. Writing on her popular blog, the Fox contributor and conservative journaist Michelle Malkin referred to the tweet as "bigotry". "[It's] irrational, self-defeating, blanket hatred," she said.
Greg Gutfeld and Adam Levy, hosts of Red Eye on Fox News, seemed even more offended. "Fun joke: why did Maroon 5 cross the road? Because crappy music is legal there," Gutfeld tweeted. Levy compared Maroon 5's work to the CIA's "enhanced interrogation techniques". Shortly after, while recording Red Eye, they deliberately played a clip from Maroon 5's Sunday Morning. "If you go to iTunes and search under the category called crap, that comes up!" Gutfeld said.