Can't wait to see it.
By Devin Faraci
The so-called liberal media is one of the perennial complaints of right wing pundits and politicians. They claim that the newspapers and TV newscasts of the country on the whole contain a skew to the left, and honestly I would probably rather see a documentary about that. It’s hard to believe that modern news media, owned by giant corporations like GE, are all that interested in a liberal point of view – after all, why would GE, arms supplier and major polluter, want to present the peace or ecology side of things?
Regardless of how I feel, Fox News was established to supposedly counterbalance the perceived bias through self-promoted fairness and balance. “We report, you decide,” goes the motto.
It’s bullshit, of course.
That’s the basic premise of Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, the heavily buzzed new documentary about Fox News. Using interviews with former Fox employees, internal Fox memos and unauthorized Fox News footage, director Robert Greenwald argues that the Fox News Channel pursues a fiercely partisan agenda, supporting the Republican Party and forces of conservatism while denigrating at every opportunity the Democrats and all who are perceived to be to the left of network owner and media titan Rupert Murdoch.
This movie could have just been called No Duh. Is there anyone – besides Fox News PR flacks – who doesn’t know that Fox News is more skewed than a Dutch angle shot? Well, the simple answer is probably yes, the millions of Americans who watch the channel. But none of these people are going to see Outfoxed.
Don’t get me wrong – Greenwald has a point, and for the most part it’s well argued. The fact that the channel is allowed to use blatantly false mottoes like “Fair and Balanced” is an outrage. The fact that studies have shown that Fox News viewers tend to be severely ignorant about the truth of world events <span class="ev_code_RED">(a study cited widely in the media and in the film shows that Fox viewers overwhelmingly tend to believe things like that WMD were found in Iraq and that Iraq was involved directly in the 9/11 attacks) is alarming </span> – has there ever been a news organization that left people more ill-informed? The idea that the Fox News model is infecting other news outlets is terrifying – the level of news and current affairs discourse on TV in America was already at a low point before the Fox News Channel ramped the race to the bottom to a brand new speed, with intense fear mongering, misdirection and the presentation of editorial content as straight news.
One of the worst things about Fox News is how it’s an echo chamber by design – the network’s talking heads are supposed to reinforce the conservative views of Murdoch and the Republicans, not to open the viewers to new ideas or to challenge them to think. Unfortunately, Outfoxed does the same thing. Like Fahrenheit 9/11 the documentary takes on the shrill tone of a one note ranter, and like Fox News all the talking heads serve the documentarian’s purposes. Granted that it’s doubtful that Fox News would have cooperated in any way with the film, but there must have been some conservatives of note who would speak in defense of the network. None are presented here.
That doesn’t invalidate the film’s points, it just makes it a lesser work. It also makes it a little boring – it’s sort of like watching a documentary that exposes how much shit stinks. We get it fairly quickly, and after a while you’re just repeating yourself.
Outfoxed does have some tremendous moments, however. The Fox memos presented are damning, as network executives direct the news staff to engage in indefensibly partisan attacks and to ignore the gaffes of the Bush administration. The movie again and again points to Fox and the GOP being in bed – I believe it, and it seems likely, but the film never attempts to actually connect those dots.
There are other astonishingly damning moments – Bill O’Reilly verbally attacking the son of a 9/11 victim and then further footage, over the next year, of O’Reilly blatantly and purposefully misrepresenting what that person said and slandering him. If there’s a more odious person on television than Bill O’Reilly I’ve yet to see them, and Outfoxed does a good job of showing this, yet it also shoots itself in the foot. During a montage of O’Reilly telling people to shut up (after he lies and claims he has only said it once) the film uses footage of the anchor using the phrase in many different ways, including some that don’t fit the original concept of the sequence. Why weaken an ironclad argument like that?
Perhaps the single most damning moment in the film, and one that should evoke endless outrage from any American interested in the truth and in fairness, is footage of then-candidate Bush being interviewed by a Fox reporter. Actually, the footage is from those moments before the interview begins, when the reporter and Bush are chatting and waiting for final preparations to finish. The reporter reveals that his wife is not just a Bush supporter but a Bush campaign volunteer – it’s an egregious lapse of the most basic journalistic ethics.
Outfoxed is getting much of its buzz from the fact that all the Fox News footage used is unauthorized (and to be honest, much of it probably also because the other news outlets love any story that denigrates the competition, especially snotty and classless upstarts like Fox News), leaving the producers up to potential lawsuits. It’ll be interesting to see how this goes in the weeks to come – will Fox take the film to court, as it did with Al Franken’s Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, which used “Fair and Balanced” in its subtitle? Since Fox lost in a completely humiliating way it seems unlikely they’ll put themselves out there again, especially since winning this case might be a bigger PR disaster than losing it – can you imagine how CNN and the networks would cover the story when the US government forces the suppression of a documentary that criticizes conservative Fox News?
As a dedicated despiser of Fox, watching the documentary was a nice jolt to the anger centers, reminding me why it’s important to be vigilant for the truth. But moments in the film made me wish for a more sweeping investigation of the issue. An interview with Walter Cronkite, once the most trusted man in America, has him bemoaning the ethics of Fox, saying that no legitimate news outlet would ever behave in the way they do. How WOULD they behave? A look at how news – specifically the inherently fluffy and visual driven television news – is put together would not only offer background and depth to the documentary, it might well open the areas of outrage. Outfoxed briefly touches on how the nation came to be in a place where Fox News could happen – the Reagan-era repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, which mandated that opposing views get equal airtime, as well as FCC deregulation that has not fostered the diversity that corporate supporters claimed but instead created a blanket of sameness that is smothering discourse in the nation – and these issues are possibly more interesting than just the evils of Fox. A segment on Fox in a documentary about those issues would probably serve the filmmaker’s purposes while illuminating a bigger problem facing our democracy.
In the last few minutes Outfoxed turns to straight advocacy, reminding viewers that the airwaves belong to us, and are just administered through the FCC (this is really one of the biggest secrets in America today – the big networks have been essentially handed a license to print money through their control of the television and radio airwaves – airwaves which are no longer regulated to ensure that we’re getting the best out of them that we can, unless it involves titties). There is a place in the cable universe for shamelessly biased reporting, especially when you look back at American history and realize that in the heyday of the newspaper, when big cities like New York would have dozens of competing dailies, point of view was often a selling point.
Fox should be allowed to be as right wing as they want to be – they shouldn’t be allowed to claim otherwise. And they shouldn’t be allowed to do it without examination. Outfoxed is a step in the right direction, and it will certainly serve to energize the left wing faithful, but it’s just one piece of the puzzle that is the continuing and growing threat of corporate driven media, where pursuit of dollars is more important than the pursuit of news or truth.
By Devin Faraci
The so-called liberal media is one of the perennial complaints of right wing pundits and politicians. They claim that the newspapers and TV newscasts of the country on the whole contain a skew to the left, and honestly I would probably rather see a documentary about that. It’s hard to believe that modern news media, owned by giant corporations like GE, are all that interested in a liberal point of view – after all, why would GE, arms supplier and major polluter, want to present the peace or ecology side of things?
Regardless of how I feel, Fox News was established to supposedly counterbalance the perceived bias through self-promoted fairness and balance. “We report, you decide,” goes the motto.
It’s bullshit, of course.
That’s the basic premise of Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, the heavily buzzed new documentary about Fox News. Using interviews with former Fox employees, internal Fox memos and unauthorized Fox News footage, director Robert Greenwald argues that the Fox News Channel pursues a fiercely partisan agenda, supporting the Republican Party and forces of conservatism while denigrating at every opportunity the Democrats and all who are perceived to be to the left of network owner and media titan Rupert Murdoch.
This movie could have just been called No Duh. Is there anyone – besides Fox News PR flacks – who doesn’t know that Fox News is more skewed than a Dutch angle shot? Well, the simple answer is probably yes, the millions of Americans who watch the channel. But none of these people are going to see Outfoxed.
Don’t get me wrong – Greenwald has a point, and for the most part it’s well argued. The fact that the channel is allowed to use blatantly false mottoes like “Fair and Balanced” is an outrage. The fact that studies have shown that Fox News viewers tend to be severely ignorant about the truth of world events <span class="ev_code_RED">(a study cited widely in the media and in the film shows that Fox viewers overwhelmingly tend to believe things like that WMD were found in Iraq and that Iraq was involved directly in the 9/11 attacks) is alarming </span> – has there ever been a news organization that left people more ill-informed? The idea that the Fox News model is infecting other news outlets is terrifying – the level of news and current affairs discourse on TV in America was already at a low point before the Fox News Channel ramped the race to the bottom to a brand new speed, with intense fear mongering, misdirection and the presentation of editorial content as straight news.
One of the worst things about Fox News is how it’s an echo chamber by design – the network’s talking heads are supposed to reinforce the conservative views of Murdoch and the Republicans, not to open the viewers to new ideas or to challenge them to think. Unfortunately, Outfoxed does the same thing. Like Fahrenheit 9/11 the documentary takes on the shrill tone of a one note ranter, and like Fox News all the talking heads serve the documentarian’s purposes. Granted that it’s doubtful that Fox News would have cooperated in any way with the film, but there must have been some conservatives of note who would speak in defense of the network. None are presented here.
That doesn’t invalidate the film’s points, it just makes it a lesser work. It also makes it a little boring – it’s sort of like watching a documentary that exposes how much shit stinks. We get it fairly quickly, and after a while you’re just repeating yourself.
Outfoxed does have some tremendous moments, however. The Fox memos presented are damning, as network executives direct the news staff to engage in indefensibly partisan attacks and to ignore the gaffes of the Bush administration. The movie again and again points to Fox and the GOP being in bed – I believe it, and it seems likely, but the film never attempts to actually connect those dots.
There are other astonishingly damning moments – Bill O’Reilly verbally attacking the son of a 9/11 victim and then further footage, over the next year, of O’Reilly blatantly and purposefully misrepresenting what that person said and slandering him. If there’s a more odious person on television than Bill O’Reilly I’ve yet to see them, and Outfoxed does a good job of showing this, yet it also shoots itself in the foot. During a montage of O’Reilly telling people to shut up (after he lies and claims he has only said it once) the film uses footage of the anchor using the phrase in many different ways, including some that don’t fit the original concept of the sequence. Why weaken an ironclad argument like that?
Perhaps the single most damning moment in the film, and one that should evoke endless outrage from any American interested in the truth and in fairness, is footage of then-candidate Bush being interviewed by a Fox reporter. Actually, the footage is from those moments before the interview begins, when the reporter and Bush are chatting and waiting for final preparations to finish. The reporter reveals that his wife is not just a Bush supporter but a Bush campaign volunteer – it’s an egregious lapse of the most basic journalistic ethics.
Outfoxed is getting much of its buzz from the fact that all the Fox News footage used is unauthorized (and to be honest, much of it probably also because the other news outlets love any story that denigrates the competition, especially snotty and classless upstarts like Fox News), leaving the producers up to potential lawsuits. It’ll be interesting to see how this goes in the weeks to come – will Fox take the film to court, as it did with Al Franken’s Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, which used “Fair and Balanced” in its subtitle? Since Fox lost in a completely humiliating way it seems unlikely they’ll put themselves out there again, especially since winning this case might be a bigger PR disaster than losing it – can you imagine how CNN and the networks would cover the story when the US government forces the suppression of a documentary that criticizes conservative Fox News?
As a dedicated despiser of Fox, watching the documentary was a nice jolt to the anger centers, reminding me why it’s important to be vigilant for the truth. But moments in the film made me wish for a more sweeping investigation of the issue. An interview with Walter Cronkite, once the most trusted man in America, has him bemoaning the ethics of Fox, saying that no legitimate news outlet would ever behave in the way they do. How WOULD they behave? A look at how news – specifically the inherently fluffy and visual driven television news – is put together would not only offer background and depth to the documentary, it might well open the areas of outrage. Outfoxed briefly touches on how the nation came to be in a place where Fox News could happen – the Reagan-era repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, which mandated that opposing views get equal airtime, as well as FCC deregulation that has not fostered the diversity that corporate supporters claimed but instead created a blanket of sameness that is smothering discourse in the nation – and these issues are possibly more interesting than just the evils of Fox. A segment on Fox in a documentary about those issues would probably serve the filmmaker’s purposes while illuminating a bigger problem facing our democracy.
In the last few minutes Outfoxed turns to straight advocacy, reminding viewers that the airwaves belong to us, and are just administered through the FCC (this is really one of the biggest secrets in America today – the big networks have been essentially handed a license to print money through their control of the television and radio airwaves – airwaves which are no longer regulated to ensure that we’re getting the best out of them that we can, unless it involves titties). There is a place in the cable universe for shamelessly biased reporting, especially when you look back at American history and realize that in the heyday of the newspaper, when big cities like New York would have dozens of competing dailies, point of view was often a selling point.
Fox should be allowed to be as right wing as they want to be – they shouldn’t be allowed to claim otherwise. And they shouldn’t be allowed to do it without examination. Outfoxed is a step in the right direction, and it will certainly serve to energize the left wing faithful, but it’s just one piece of the puzzle that is the continuing and growing threat of corporate driven media, where pursuit of dollars is more important than the pursuit of news or truth.
i star in it
The only shows I will watch from time to time on Fox News are O'Reilly, Hannity and Colmes and On the Record.
O'Reilly leans right for sure, but he has crucified Bush on the war in Iraq. Colmes is a flaming lib to offset Hannity and On the Record seems to be right down the middle. So I don't see a lot of bias in the shows I've watched.
O'Reilly leans right for sure, but he has crucified Bush on the war in Iraq. Colmes is a flaming lib to offset Hannity and On the Record seems to be right down the middle. So I don't see a lot of bias in the shows I've watched.
