Fox fake-out: Palin's 'interview' with LL Cool J

Fox News' announcement that LL Cool J would guest on tonight's inaugural episode of Sarah Palin's Real American Stories surprised a lot of people—none more than the rap legend himself. LL Cool J charged that Fox was using, without permission, a 2008 interview that didn't involve Palin—prompting Fox to cut the segment, since the rapper apparently "does not want to be associated with a program that could serve as an inspiration to others." Who won this unexpected "chapter in the culture wars"? (Watch a report about LL Cool J's objection)

Palin didn't need this fight: "Heckuva job, Fox PR department," says Allahpundit at Hot Air. Making it look like Palin would be "swapping life lessons" with LL (and fellow "guest" Toby Keith) was smart, if deceptive, marketing, but it backfired: "Is there nowhere this poor woman can turn without having controversy follow her?"

"The obligatory 'Fox News pulls LL Cool J segment from Palin’s show' post"

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LL Cool J's the loser here: Fox shouldn't have insinuated that Palin was conducting the interviews, says Gregg Re in The Daily Caller. But "singer-turned-failed-actor-turned-failed-singer" Cool J has protested too much. Now that Fox yanked LL's segment from Palin's show, he "looks even worse than he did when his latest album" tanked.

"Hockey mama says knock LL out"

Failed actor? Think again—LL doesn't need Fox's charity: Fox's "typically bitchy" slap-down of LL—they wished him "the best with his fledgling acting career"—is funny, says Alex Pareene in Gawker, but not in the way Fox thinks. Any given episode of LL's cop show, NCIS: Los Angeles, gets "10+ million more people watching it than Fox News' highest rated show, The O'Reilly Factor."

"LL Cool J wants you to know that he did not sit down with Sarah Palin"

It's too bad — they could have been friends: The "heartache" here is that LL Cool J and Palin would have had much to debate, says Mary Katherine Ham in The Weekly Standard. LL's "not an 'out' conservative, as far as I know, but his politics seem to lean libertarian," and he can quote the Bible and Ayn Rand in the same interview. A real sit-down with Palin would have been "great TV."

"Palin to debut new Fox Show with guest, L.L. Cool J (Updated with heart-ache)"

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