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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: The Disinformation Company
Salesrank: 19699
Released: July 13, 2004 |
| Our Price: $4.24 |
| Used Price: $1.95 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
"Fair and balanced"??? How about anything BUT?!?! For the first time ever, this documentary 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."
"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.
"Outfoxed" first examines media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the Australian company, News Corp., tracing how the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) helped Murdoch break the rules to establish a fourth network in the United States. The film explores Murdoch's burgeoning kingdom and the impact on society when a broad swath of media is controlled by one person.
Media experts, including Jeff Cohen (FAIR), Bob McChesney and Chellie Pingree, provide context and guidance for the story of Fox News and its effect on society.
The team behind "Outfoxed" created a system to monitor Fox News 24 hours a day for months to discover exactly how its shows worked. A team of volunteers around the country scrutinized every hour of Fox News programming, noting examples of bias in its coverage. The result is an intense examination of Fox News and the lie inherent in its favorite motto: "Fair and Balanced."
Description of Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism:
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism uses the inflammatory tactics of the Fox News Channel to demonstrate the conservative bias that's handed down by Fox's owner, media mogul Rupert Murdoch. The documentary gathers interviews from media watchdogs and former Fox employees (including a former anchor, Jon Du Pre, who describes his flailing efforts to create a celebration for Reagan's birthday when the one he was sent to cover never materialized), but their overwhelming condemnation of Fox's skewed news practices isn't half as effective as footage taken directly from Fox itself--an appalling montage of pundit Bill O'Reilly telling guests to shut up; repeated efforts to paint Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry as weak and waffling, while President Bush is captured in respectful, reverent images; and management memos dictating language, subject matter, and point of view. Outfoxed is unlikely to persuade Fox News fans to change their views, but it may spur outraged liberals to take action. --Bret Fetzer
Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism Reviews:
Interesting 
2009-08-17 - Nutshell review - This is really quite an interesting documentary which highlights (a) how extensive the Murdoch media/news empire is, and (b) the right-wing slant this media empire promotes. Of course, everyone has an agenda and one must think carefully about the agenda of not only the subject of the documentary but also the makers of it. It is quite well produced, explores the topic well but the real message, imo, is not about Fox per se but rather about the need for objective news reporting free of any political agenda or vested party influence (idealistic perhaps but nonetheless desirable).
Valuable, But Take It With a Grain of Salt
2009-05-09 - "Outfoxed" is at its best when carefully demonstrating how Fox News does indeed create a distorted picture of things. For example, the film demonstrates, through archival footage, how Fox encourages punditry. For instance, they point out that the liberal guests that come on regularly (Dick Morris, Susan Estrich) usually agree with Hannity and O'Reilly's main points. Further, the now-defunct Hannity & Colmes was flawed, as Hannity has this all-American appearance, and is always aggressive, whereas Colmes looked squirrely, and tended to back down easily. In addition, internal memos and interviews with former employees give strong evidence that Fox seeks to create a climate of fear- fear of terrorism, of immigrants, of religious minorities, etc.
What weakened "Outfoxed" for me was that it didn't focus just on Fox News- it has an agenda of its own beside that. For example, almost all of the media experts interviewed were from the left media organization FAIR. They made valuable points, but it would have given the movie more credibility if other organizations were represented. Finally, toward the end, Bernie Sanders and others being interviewed appear to press for the Fairness Doctrine, which I think would create far more problems than it would solve.
Overall, this is a good movie to rent as a corrective to the "Fair and Balanced" network.
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid 
2009-04-16 - I re-watched this fine documentary a few days ago and now, in the middle of the Fox-hyped Tea Parties, the real danger of what this network is doing has started to sink in.
They are, naturally, still up to their old tricks. Recently they did a segment about Harry Reid's plan to build a railroad directly from Disneyland to the "Door steps of the Moonlight Bunny Ranch brothel" in Neveda. Needless to say, no such plan exists and the notion that the Senate Majority Leader would suddenly decide that it would be a good idea to build a train from an amusment park to a brothel is utterly inane. But that didn't stop Fox News from reporting it.
The sad part is that regular Fox viewers didn't even raise a fuss. Apparently they are no longer interested in the news having even a slight toehold on reality. I'm guessing their reaction fell somewhere along the lines of, "Well, that sure sounds like something the Democrats would do!"
I suppose this sort of thing became inevitable when, during the Reagan years, the ban was lifted on limits to media ownership and the fairness doctrine was abolished. (Congress reinstated the doctrine but Reagan vetoed it) It was only a matter of time before someone aired a network under the guise of journalism that promoted a hardline doctrine and the interest of their own politcal party.
For now, the damage is limited to the few millions that have never asked themselves why it is that a news organization would even have to advertise that they are "Fair and Balanced". These viewers get virtually all of thier news from Fox and like minded media hacks like Rush Limbaugh. They are a minority and pose little threat.
Where the real danger lies is in just where this could lead if there was an extended collapse of the economy. Few people realize that, in Germany, Hitler labored in relative obscurity for almost 7 years and made little progress with the masses. In the election of 1928 the Nazis garnered a scant 3% of the popular vote. But when the depression hit, and people became angry and frightened, the Nazi lies began to resonant with the common people.
This film shows how Fox is poised to take advantage of just such a collapse. They are there, backed by nervous corporate interests, ready to tell a frightened population just what they want to hear. They are ready to tell us that we must be better Christians, that we must come down hard on gays and immigrants, that we must solve our problems by going backward, not forward. They are ready to tell us that any government that is not manned by their party of choice is a danger to us.
Watch this film and arm yourself with the truth about this network. It is easy enough now to laugh at the "Harry Reid wants to build a train from Disneyland to a brothel" stories. But this is dangerous business when hard times hit. We wouldn't be the first democracy to be undermined by propaganda cloaked as journalism.
The ultimate irony here is that the people behind Fox News and their loyal following view themselves as the "True Americans" while they support a brand of journalism that has ability to undermine the very foundations of the most fundamental American ideals.
A look into propaganda in a Democratic country.
2009-01-18 - Very informative, insightful movie. Proves everything you have heard... that "Fair and Balanced" is the most ironic tagline in the history of media. Highly recommened.
Have not seen "Fox Attacks! Edition"... but I'm sure it is up to the standards of the original movie.
I also recommened this in its book form and "Fair and Balanced My A$$."
Fox News is Run of the Mill Now!
2008-11-02 - For all the complaints about Fox News, the other networks have become just as bad in promoting the left as Fox promoted the right. This is where is all began, but it has expanded and grown. CNN and MSNBC have the same busy screens, arguing people without real conversation and information and stereotypes being promoted rather than real news. I think Fox started it but it has now progressed. Newspapers often depended on subscriptions for financial profit, now with most reading on the Internet, advertising is more important. Ratings and advertising rates are the profit basis for televison along with cable subscription rates. That means that corportations have less dependece on the public and more on companies. Over all journalism has been massively hurt and there doesn't seem to be an alternative.
