Outfoxed
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| Outfoxed | |
|---|---|
| Distributed by | MoveOn.org |
| Release date(s) | July 13, 2004 |
| Running time | 78 mins |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $200,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
- For more details on this topic, see Fox News Channel controversies.
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism is a 2004 documentary film by left-wing filmmaker Robert Greenwald that argues that the Fox News Channel has a right-wing bias. It also claims consumer fraud in the channel, stating that Fox News is
| not the bastion of fairness and balance it claims to be. |
The following is taken directly from the film's promotional material:
| Outfoxed examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a 'race to the bottom' in television news. This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public's right to know. |
The film explores Murdoch's burgeoning kingdom and the impact on society when a broad swath of media is controlled by one person.
This documentary also reveals the secrets of former Fox News producers, reporters, bookers and writers who expose what it's like to work for Fox News. These former Fox employees talk about how they were forced to push a "right-wing" point of view or risk their jobs. Some have even chosen to remain anonymous in order to protect their current livelihoods. As one employee said,
| There's no sense of integrity as far as having a line that can't be crossed. |
[edit] Content
The film uses clips from Fox News broadcasts, leaked network memos and commentary from media critics and former Fox News employees to argue several points:
- Fox News management, including owner Rupert Murdoch and president Roger Ailes, both conservatives, control the network's content. The film includes leaked "issues of the day" memos telling producers which stories and issues should be covered and from what perspective and argues that the memos have a clear ideological underlining. Former employees claim that they were praised for positive coverage of conservatives and negative coverage of liberals and reproached for negative coverage of conservatives and positive coverage of liberals.
- Fox News reporters and anchors who dare to ask tough questions to a Republican or right-wing activist are given negative reprisals such as Suspension (punishment). One Outfoxed panelist describes Fox News as "a Stalinist system."
- Fox News gives much more airtime to speeches by the United States Republican Party (President George W. Bush) and his administration than to those by the United States Democrats.
- Fox News concentrates on the positive aspects of the 2003 war in Iraq and its aftermath and downplays the negative.
- Fox News is having a negative effect on cable news.
- Fox News purposely features only moderate or fainthearted liberal commentators.
- Fox News commentators such as Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity try to intimidate and out-yell liberal guests such as author and activist Jeremy Glick.
[edit] Criticism
- Fox News claims that the status of the ex-employees were exaggerated and misrepresented.[citation needed]
- Critics have claimed that Fox News clips were cut in a way to misinterpret what the anchors and reporters were actually saying, utilizing propagandistic techiques similar to those it critiques. 'Rapid-fire montages' mock the channel's slogan "Fair and Balanced." [1]
- Many of the contributors and the distributor (Moveon.org) have liberal ties, raising questions as to whether the movie itself was biased. Reviewer David Rooney states that as the DVD, distributed through the Disinformation Web site, did not have media coverage and promotion like Michael Moore's recent documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," Greenwald's film is unlikely to "reach beyond a liberal audience with an already vehement aversion to Fox News' partisan coverage." [2]
