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AP

Fox News Anchor Files $5 Million Lawsuit Over Toy Hamster

Sep 2, 2015  •  Post A Comment

An anchor on Fox News Channel is going to court with a $5 million lawsuit over a toy hamster. The AP reports that Harris Faulkner sued toymaker Hasbro over the plastic Harris Faulkner hamster — a toy that “shares her name — and possibly even her resemblance,” the story notes.

The toy hamster is included in Hasbro’s Littlest Pet Shop line.

“She says the toy wrongfully appropriates her name and persona, harms her professional credibility as a journalist and is an insult,” the story reports.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, reportedly says: “Hasbro’s portrayal of Faulkner as a rodent is demeaning and insulting.”

Faulkner, who has been with Fox News for a decade, hosts the daytime program “Outnumbered” and anchors a newscast on Sunday evenings.

“Her lawsuit says that in addition to sharing her name, the toy bears a physical resemblance to Faulkner’s traditional professional appearance, including its complexion, eye shape and eye makeup design,” the AP reports. “The Harris Faulkner toy was introduced in 2014, according to the lawsuit, and was sold in a package as the pet hamster of a terrier named Benson Detwyler. Other toys in the popular line include animals named Pancakes Watkins, Puffball Petrovsky and Pepper Clark.”

harris faulkner hamster-hasbroHarris Faulkner hamster (Hasbro)

5 Comments

  1. Why on earth with a company with any sense just go ahead and manufacture a toy with a public person’s name and not expect this? Do they have a legal department they would run this past first? If it was a Johnny Depp hamster, an Angelina Jolie hamster…whatever, this same thing would have happened.

  2. I think she is a bit too sensitive. In an unfair and unbalanced way. I’ve never heard of the Faux News Channel ever apolgizing for getting their facts wrong, including naming two innocent individuals during the Boston Marathon bombing coverage.

  3. It may come out that the hampster was in development long before the Faux News person was a known entity … plus, she would have to prove intent beyond the simple use of a name … you can’t copyright a name.

  4. She’s been on the air for 10 years? I’ve literally never heard of her until this article. Clearly she must be reasonably sane, because I don’t remember her being featured on a lot of clips on The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, which is the usual way I catch Fox News.
    Is it possible the toy company never heard of her either??

  5. Writerguy is RIGHT ON THE MONEY !! My first thought was : “Harris who ?”.
    HASBRO, writerguy and I have never heard of her (or her attorney brother with time on his hands ….) !!

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