Fox News is using R.E.M.’s music, and the iconic alternative band is acting like it’s the end of the world as we know we know it.
In a Facebook status posted late Thursday, the rock band demanded Fox News stop playing “Losing My Religion” during its programs.
The band’s publisher, Warner-Tamerlane Music, also sent the News Corp.-owned channel a cease-and-desist letter for its “unlicensed and unauthorized” song usage.
“We have little or no respect for their puff adder brand of reportage,” R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe said. “Our music does not belong here.”
According to TVNewser, Fox News has used the song multiple times when the network was talking about the Democratic National Committee not including the words “God” and “Jerusalem” in the party’s platform.
The status has garnered 11,000 likes and 1,600 shares. Some of the nearly 1,000 comments are in support of Stipe’s message and anti-Fox News rhetoric.
“You did the right thing Mike!” Dewi Salim wrote .
“Thanks REM,” Julie Smith Allison added. “That’s why you’re one of my faves.”
But others commenters told R.E.M. to “quit complaining” and said what the band was doing isn’t right. “I didn’t realize you made your music for only 1 group of people. Kinda a narrow world view…,” wrote Chris Jones.
“You are entertainers…entertain me,” Adam Holloman reasoned.
Photo via Andrew Hurley/Flickr