Fox News Sunday has reportedly offered to host a nationally-televised debate between Missouri senate candidates Roy Blunt and Robin Carnahan -- but where does the offer stand now that Fox News and FNS host Chris Wallace are suing the Carnahan campaign?

The lawsuit comes after Fox News parent News Corp. -- through its political action committee -- has donated more than $10,000 directly to Blunt's campaign committee but apparently none to Carnahan's.

The Hollywood Reporter revealed earlier today that Fox and Wallace filed a lawsuit “late yesterday” alleging that Carnahan's campaign “used proprietary footage in a campaign advertisement to make it appear that the network was endorsing her.”

The Reporter noted that “the Rupert Murdoch-controlled company is breaking new ground, filing a lawsuit against a prominent Democratic politician targeting a practice that has long been common in the political world” and that Fox News has some apparently flexible views on “fair use,” itself previously having been accused of “misappropriation of the copyright of others”:

The subject of “fair use” has been a hot topic in Fox News circles in the past year. In an interview last November, Murdoch claimed that courts would eventually bar “fair use” as a legal doctrine, but the network has used it on a couple of occasions to defend itself in lawsuits against alleged misappropriation of the copyright of others.

According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, a Fox News spokesman said, “We filed this lawsuit because we cannot allow it to appear as though Chris Wallace is endorsing any candidate.”

However, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, News Corp's political action committee "News America Holdings Inc-Fox Pol Action Committee" has donated more than $10,000 directly to Roy Blunt's campaign committee -- including $2,500 this election cycle -- yet apparently none to Robin Carnahan's campaign committee.

Yep, they certainly wouldn't want to give the appearance of “endorsing” any candidate in the race...