episode, the family is watching Krusty and his opponent debate on the Fox News Channel, which showed several headlines in its news ticker that parodied the right-leaning network's political views. Among the headlines in the news ticker were "Pointless news crawls up 37 percent," "Do Democrats cause cancer? Find out at foxnews.com," "Rupert Murdoch: Terrific dancer," "Dow down 5,000 points," "Study: 92 percent of Democrats are gay," "JFK posthumously joins Republican Party," and "Oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple." Several months after the episode originally aired, Matt Groening claimed that Fox News, the corporate sister to the Fox Broadcasting Company that airs the show, threatened to sue Groening, but opted against "suing itself." Groening mentioned that while they got away with the joke, they were no longer allowed to parody news tickers on the show. Despite that, the show would still parody Fox News on several occasions afterward. The Dow Jones & Company, which owned the Dow Jones Industrial Average that was parodied in the news ticker, would be purchased by News Corporation in 2007 and would be a corporate sister to Fox until the 2013 split between the new News Corporation and 21st Century Fox, which was further split with the acquisition of the film and television assets of 21st Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company on March 19, 2019, with Fox News Channel now part of the Fox Corporation. Cultural references The episode title is a reference to the movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". The scene where Mayor Quimby, upon hearing his mistress speak for the first time, remarks that he "regrets building her that opera house" is a reference to Citizen Kane, where the title character opens an opera house for his mistress, despite her lack of vocal talent. References External links Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington script at Springfield! Springfield! The Simpsons (season 14) episodes 2003 American television episodes Animation controversies in television Fox News criticisms and controversies Television controversies in the United States Television episodes about elections Television shows written by John Swartzwelder