"Dog Bites Man" comedy has Oregonians growling

HOLLYWOOD — Comedy Central's new local-news mockumentary, "Dog Bites Man," might have bitten off more than it can chew. The network finds itself juggling demands to drop footage from the partly scripted, partly improvisational, partly "Punk'd"-style reality show that premiered last week.

The 10-episode series about the staff of a dysfunctional morning news show in Spokane features segments in which the fictional news team interviews unsuspecting real people — not always to everyone's delight, as it turns out.

The Oregon attorney general's office has fired off a second letter to the network reiterating its protest of the TV crew filming under the guise of making a documentary at a real-life media literacy class at Portland State University.

The first letter, sent May 30, saw no humor in the situation: "We represent the state of Oregon and Portland State University in the dispute involving the fake news crew that visited PSU under false pretenses on May 16, 2006," wrote Christine A. Chute with the office's government services and education section. "Please provide me with written assurances that none of the footage filmed at PSU will be aired for any purpose whatsoever."

The network was considering the university's demand that the footage be yanked. Last month, the network agreed to kill a segment filmed in March in Tustin, Calif., at which Chapman University professor Fred Smoller was an unwitting panelist in what he thought was a discussion on media and politics being filmed for a documentary.

Comedy Central spokesman Tony Fox said filming for the show also drew protests from a third college professor. Although filming has ended for this season, he said, the network is considering lessons learned from the dust-up.

"We're certainly aware that the academic community doesn't want to play with us on this show," said Fox.

"We're creating rather ridiculous situations to get the reactions that are the basis of the humor," he said. "Some of the results are quite funny. When you get people in these situations, you don't know what you're going to get."

Portland State communications teacher Jil Freeman said in an e-mail to Smoller that one of the students in the media class recognized actor Matt Walsh, who plays KHBX anchor Kevin Beekin, from the Will Ferrell movie "Old School."

"The crew denied it and said that 'he gets that a lot,' " wrote Freeman, who declined comment and referred calls to the university's attorney. She learned of Smoller through news reports of his earlier battle with the network.

Rounding out the fake news crew were actors Zach Galifianakis, A.D. Miles and Andrea Savage. After the main session, the actors met with smaller groups of unwitting students, who later reported to Freeman what they had learned about how to break into the news business: "Blindfolds are for the bedroom, not an interview session," and "You need to get someone in a turban if you are doing a story on gas prices."