Toby Keith is the latest victim in The FOX News Channel’s Bait N’ Switch use of old interview footage for Sarah Palin’s new documentary series, debuting on the conservative cable network tonight. The country star has joined LL Cool J in accusing the network of misleading viewers with a promo that seems to insinuate that Palin will be interviewing the music stars on this evening’s Real American Stories.
In the wake of LL Cool J’s Twitter post alerting fans that a FOX interview he did in 2008 would be featured on Palin’s program without his permission, a rep for country star Toby Keith stated late Wednesday that he, too, appears in promos for Palin’s show through old footage from a separate interview — withouth permission, mind you.
“We were never contacted by Fox. I have no idea what interview it’s taken from. They’re promoting this like it’s a brand new interview,” a spokesperson for Keith told HitFix.com overnight.
Why is this surprising? The promo is misleading — like most of the other information featured prominently on that network. What else is new?
After LL complained, FOX producers cut footage of the star from the special. So far, however, Toby’s recycled interview still looks like a go.