Outfoxed

Not to be confused with Out-Foxed, a 1948 Droopy cartoon.
Outfoxed
Distributed by MoveOn.org
Brave New Films
Release dates
  • July 13, 2004
Running time
 78 mins
Budget US$200,000

Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism is a 2004 documentary film by filmmaker Robert Greenwald that says the Fox News Channel, and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, use the channel to promote and advocate right-wing views.[1] The film says this bias belies the channel's motto of being "Fair and Balanced".[2][3]

The documentary had a limited theatrical release,[4] was distributed in DVD format by the Political action committee MoveOn.org, and was sold online through Internet retailers such as Amazon.com.[5] MoveOn.org had helped promote the DVD release by taking out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times.[5]

Following the release of Outfoxed, Greenwald and Brave New Films produced a related series of anti-Fox viral videos, collectively entitled Fox Attacks.[1]

Synopsis

The film examines the global growth of Murdoch's media enterprise in the context of concentration of media ownership considerations, and evaluates the effect of having one person in control of a large media conglomerate on freedom of the press.[3]

Some of Outfoxed's coverage includes:

Former Fox News journalists appear in the film critiquing the methods and perceived integrity of their former employer.[7] Jon Du Pre, a former reporter for Fox News's West Coast bureau, said that he had been suspended by Fox News management because his live shots from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Ronald Reagan's birthday — which Du Pre described was like a "holy day" to Fox News's hierarchy — were not "celebratory enough."[8] A former Fox News military contributor, Larry C. Johnson, said that he was in high demand to give on-air analysis on the "War on Terrorism", until he called into question on Hannity & Colmes whether or not the United States could fight two wars (in Afghanistan and Iraq) simultaneously, an incident after which Johnson says he was ignored as a potential Fox News contributor.[9]

Reviews

Outfoxed received positive reviews from critics, earning 85% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer.[10]

Variety.com reviewer David Rooney writes that the film "provides stimulating evidence of how thoroughly news can be skewed, political agendas served and a climate of fear created by a news net selling itself as an objective information service." He compares it favorably to Michael Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, adding that without the "media spotlight" that surrounded Moore's film, Outfoxed "appears unlikely to reach beyond a liberal audience with an already vehement aversion to Fox News' partisan coverage."[11]

Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post praised Greenwald's uncovering of "...a handful of memos from a top Fox executive", which he argued suggested network bias over the war in Iraq and the investigation of the September 11 attacks. Kurtz was critical of how Greenwald's allegations relied on "orders, or attitudes, of an unnamed 'they'...", and was critical of the filmmaker for making "...no effort at fairness or balance himself."[12]

Fox News and Rupert Murdoch's response

Megan Lehmann wrote in the New York Post, a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, that the movie was a "narrowly focused, unapologetically partisan documentary," and that it "is so one-sided, it undermines its own integrity."[13]

Fox News called the film "illegal copyright infringement" for its use of clips from Fox News Channel programs.[14]

Fox also said the film misrepresented the employment of four people identified as former Fox News employees.[14] Fox News said Alexander Kippen and Frank O'Donnell had actually been employees of WTTG, the Fox owned-and-operated station in Washington, D.C., and not employees of Fox News Channel. It said that Jon Du Pre, identified as a former anchor in the film, had actually been a reporter, and that his contract had not been renewed because he was "a weak field correspondent and could not do live shots."[14] It said that Clara Frenk, identified as a former producer in the film, had actually been a "pool booker" who "expressed no concern about the editorial process" while employed there. Fox also pointed out that Frenk had been a volunteer for Bill Clinton's 1992 Presidential campaign.[12]

Fox News challenged any news organization that thought this was a major story to "put out 100 percent of their editorial directions and internal memos [and] Fox News Channel will publish 100 percent of our editorial directions and internal memos, and let the public decide who is fair."[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Blackwelder, Rob (6 October 2004). "OutFoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism". NicksFlickPicks.
  2. ↑ Hanley, Tyler (10 September 2004). "Outfoxed". Palo Alto Weekly.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Cracknell, Ryan (1 September 2004). "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism". Movie Views.
  4. ↑ Turan, Kenneth (6 August 2004). "A network gets 'Outfoxed' through its own ideas, deeds". Los Angeles Times.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Deans, Jason (2004-07-21). "Fox News documentary tops Amazon sales chart". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Burr, Ty (17 September 2004). "This Fox hunt is direct and effective". Boston Globe.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Kendrick, James (22 August 2004). "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism". Q Network.
  8. ↑ Jesse Walker (2004-08-16). "Outfoxed DVD Review". Mindjack. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
  9. ↑ Miles O'Dometer (2004-11-27). "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism". Rambles.net. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
  10. ↑ Deming, Mark. "Outfoxed". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
  11. ↑ Rooney, David (2004-07-12). "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism". Variety.com. Retrieved 2007-01-23.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Kurtz, Howard (2004-07-11). "Tilting at the Right, Leaning to the Left: Robert Greenwald's 'Outfoxed' Has Its Own Slant on Balance". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  13. ↑ Lehmann, Megan (2004-08-06). "Fair and Balanced, this Doc's Not". New York Post. Retrieved 2009-10-11.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 "FOX News Channel Statement on 'Outfoxed'". Foxnews.com. Archived from the original on 2006-09-27. Retrieved 2007-01-23.

External links