[1] Judge Denny Chin denied Fox's motion for injunction on August 22, and the network dropped the suit three days later.

Saying that he felt the need to explain why a fellow panelist's face was on the cover of a book entitled Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, Franken told a story about O'Reilly's incorrect statements that Inside Edition, a show that he had formerly worked for, had won two Peabody Awards, when it in fact won a Polk Award for work conducted after O'Reilly severed his ties with the program.

[citation needed] In what author and editor Richard Blow described as "an eight-inch thick legal filing,"[6] the network contended that it had been irreparably harmed by the publicity surrounding Franken's use of the phrase "fair and balanced" on the preliminary cover of Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, which Fox claimed it had first become aware of following the BookExpo panel discussion in May.

The filing stated that Franken had "been described as a 'C-level political commentator' who is 'increasingly unfunny'", and claimed that the comedian was "shrill and unstable" and had "appeared either intoxicated or deranged" at a press correspondents' dinner in April 2003.

[7] In response, Franken joked that he had trademarked the word "funny", and that Fox had infringed his intellectual property rights by characterizing him as "unfunny."

On August 22, U.S. District Court judge Denny Chin heard arguments from attorneys representing the plaintiff and the defendant regarding Fox News's request for an injunction to prevent Franken from releasing the book with its current title.

In a hearing punctuated at times by laughter from the assembled spectators,[8] Chin questioned Fox News attorney Dori Ann Hanswirth harshly about her contention that the phrase "fair and balanced" on the cover of Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them was likely to confuse consumers into believing that the book was produced or endorsed by Fox News Channel.

Plaintiff Fox News Network, LLC ("Fox") has moved for a preliminary injunction enjoining defendants from, among other things, using the phrase "Fair and Balanced" in the title of the book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, written by defendant Al Franken.

LEXIS 18693; 31 Media L. Rep. 2254 (2003)Judge Chin said the case was an easy one, and chided Fox News Network LLC for bringing its complaint to court.

For its part, Fox News Channel was ridiculed by commentators and bloggers on both sides of the political divide, many of whom suggested that the network had filed the suit to placate Bill O'Reilly in the wake of his run-in with Franken at the BookExpo panel.

[9][10] Drawing on Judge Chin's concluding remarks, Franken suggested that Fox News adopt "wholly without merit" as its new slogan to replace the possibly invalid "fair and balanced".

[13] In 2004, Franken began hosting a talk show, originally titled The O'Franken Factor, on the Air America Radio network.