Does anyone know a good copyright attorney who specializes in copyright law?
Over the past 24 hours, I've received several emails from Ogle Moles asking about a recent Chive pictorial featuring News 9's Lacey Swope. The bro-site compiled 30-something photos of the Severe Weather Babe and packaged them under the headline "Lovable meteorologist causes up-roar in OK City news." The piece included a written narrative that was put together by some bro who spends way too much time smoking weed and scrolling through pics of side boob and yoga pants. I guess his name is Rick.
About half way through the article, Rick got to the photos of Lacey's October hunting accident. Remember that? We covered it in our trademarked TLO-style at the time and asked the same question every native Oklahoman was thinking...
The big question here is why Lacey is hunting pigs. Does she not realize she works at News 9?! That’s a colossal slap in the face to Lord Gary England, and his late beloved pot belly pig, Spike. Pigs are Gary England’s favorite animal and the sigil of his house! According to the Gospel of Sam in The New York Times, Lord England even dreamed of being a pig farmer before the prophecy of the Severe Weather Scrolls was realized...
To support and document Lord England's fascination with pigs, we then quoted this excerpt from the New York Times...
"Gary England’s ancestors came to the state, in search of cheap farmland, before it was even a state. They settled out West, in the desolate area where Oklahoma shades into North Texas, and struggled to raise livestock between droughts and blizzards and dust storms and flash floods. England was born in 1939 in a country house with no electricity, by the light of a kerosene lamp; family lore has it that his parents paid the doctor in chickens. In high school, before England became fully fixated on the weather, he dreamed of being a pig farmer."
We also noted that on the same day Lacey disclosed her injury, News 9 announced she would have to kiss a pig for charity. Coincidence, I think not.
Kiss The Pig Contest Raises Money For Food For Kids!
Thanks to all your help at the State Fair this year, News 9 raised more than $13,000 for the Regional Food Bank!
In the end, Meteorologist Lacey Swope pulled in more than $2,000. She visited Bad Boy Genetics in Cashion to find the perfect pig. Then, she puckered up and planted a sweet smooch on a sow named Illinois.
Once again, our write-up was the standard TLO bit where we draw absurd, satirical conclusions from a collection of random facts. As our readers know, the commentary isn't meant to be taken literally or seriously. It was just something Lorne Fultonberg I came up with while wasting time in the KFOR breakroom. We honestly didn't put a lot of thought into it.
On the topic of not putting a lot of thought into things, Rick from The Chive enjoyed our article. He took our riff, angle and general idea, slightly changed it, and since TLO is the Rodney Dangerfield of the interwebs, passed it off as his own.
Check this out:
[Lacey] has got in trouble with the cry-babies of the world. Here is how her PR issue went down.
It started when she popped her head on the gun scope while out hunting hogs.
No big deal, right?
What she didn’t know is that the hog she shot would offend a former meteorologist named Gary England.
The problem being, not only has Mr. England gone on to become a half-way-powerful Vice President at “Griffin Communications” which owns “Channel 9," [but] ol’ Gary also has a strange love for pigs.
Strange? The following comes from an article about Mr. England which was written by “The New York Times”:
“England was born in 1939 in a country house with no electricity, by the light of a kerosene lamp; family lore has it that his parents paid the doctor in chickens. In high school, before England became fully fixated on the weather, he dreamed of being a pig farmer.”
Mr. England brought the hammer down on Lacey (b/c crazy people are a-holes). At first she just had to attend a charity called, “Kiss the Pig Contest”.
Not only did she go to the event and kiss a pig; because Lacey’s considered a local celebrity, her attendance helped raise $13,000 for the Regional Food Bank.
See what I mean? He totally ripped off our bit!
That means one of two things.
A) He interpreted what was obvious satire as a fact.
B) He's lazy, didn't put a lot of thought into things and blatantly ripped off our material. Considering he also thought Maggie Stokes (remember her?) was Lacey Swope, that wouldn't surprise me...
Right now, I'm leaning towards Option B. Rick also took our material another level by insinuating that Lacey was forced out of News 9 due to the hunting accident...
The “horrible” incident took place back in October of last year but the PR hassle continued to plague Lacey.
Cry-baby’s anger kept pouring in. Complaints about a public figure hunting came from both locals along with many complaints coming from others living out-side of OKC.
Was she forced out? That takes place behind closed work doors. Lacey will be taking her infectious smile to Tulsa.
All I can say is, “good luck OKC, good luck finding a cute gal that understands trigger discipline”.
Just to clarify, there's no PR crisis or controversy with Lacey Swope's impending departure. From all accounts, she really is leaving News 9 because she wants to move to Tulsa. Gary England has nothing to do with it. If it was up to him, David Payne would be the meteorologist heading up the turnpike.
Anyway, I don't have a problem with the Chive piggy-backing on our joke. Keep Calm And Imitate On, but don't be a douche bag and not give us any credit. They gave credit to the New York Times. Hell, they even hat-tipped The Fat Jack's wife...
As a token of goodwill, The Chive should edit the post and give us proper attribution, or better yet, perhaps they can dedicate a special pictorial of Oklahoma sideboobs and yoga pants in our honor. We'd appreciate that.
