'Outfoxed' links news network, GOP
Appearing in the Star Beacon WEEKENDER July 18, 2008
Having a connection with news myself, I decided watching “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism” was a must-see.
It was obviously filmed on a shoe-string budget, using volunteers to gather Fox News footage for this 2004 effort.
The movie was also put together through the efforts of moveon.org, a decidedly liberal organization.
It chronicles Austrailian-born billionaire Rupert Murdoch, who created the Fox network and Fox News Network.
The documentary uses plenty of archival footage, media experts and former Fox reporters to chronicle how Fox is a mere extension of the Republican party, even though it purports to be “fair and balance.”
One program, we learn, had 83 percent Republican guests to 17 percent Democrats. The Democrats, we are told, were mostly middle to right of the political spectrum.
If you are a conservative and love Fox, you are risking a stroke watching this film.
Some of it is pretty funny, like when former reporter John DuPre tells about how he was assigned to cover President Reagan’s 90th birthday celebration at Reagan’s museum. Murdoch loves Reagan.
Trouble is, the only thing going on that day was some grade-school students were visiting. So the reporter chronicled how the kids sang “Happy Birthday” and ate cake. Fox executives asked for more. The reporter maintains nothing was going on but we see footage where he describes people streaming in from all over the U.S. and Canada to celebrate. Even pushing the truth wasn’t sufficient. The reporter was suspended for not doing more to emphasize the Gipper’s birthday.
The loathsome Bill O’Reilly is spotlighed, how he brings on guests, argues with them, calls them names, tells them to shut up and shuts off their microphones.
We see footage of O’Reilly saying only once did he ever tell a guest to shut up. Then we see a whole litany of excerpts of O’Reilly telling people to shut up.
One guest, Jeremy Glick, was not only cut off, but when the interview was over, staff people told Glick he better leave because O’Reilly was angry and they couldn’t assure his safety. Glick’s father died in the World Trade Center.
News experts tell how Fox uses terms like “people say” to criticize Democrats, while distancing themselves from the argument.
The night of the 2000 election, a Fox reporter whose wife works for the Bush campaign interviewed the president. We are treated to the exchange of niceties between the two, mentioning of mutual friends, before the interview begins.
The film mentions that it was Bush’s cousin who called the 2000 election for Bush, even though experts said it could have gone either way. The film maintains as a result, ABC, NBC and CBS followed suite and declared Bush the winner.
Archival footage included Brit Hume, Molly Ivins, John Kerry, Murdoch, Condoleezza Rice and many more.
The movie analyzes reported “talking points” supposedly put together by the Bush White House which would dominate right-wing radio talk shows and Fox news, using the exact same terminology. One example was the supposed flip flopping on issues by Sen. John Kerry.
What the film didn’t examine was the fact Fox TV network’s “Simpsons” series routinely lampoons Murdoch and Fox News. In one episode, a Fox truck is going down the street in front of the Simpson home with a Bush-Cheney bumper sticker. Nobody explains how this is permitted.
You know going into this film that it supports the liberal cause. But for people interested in news and politics, it certainly is worth a look, especially with its impact on journalism and the injection of opinion.
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