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We’re told that Murdoch adored former President
Ronald Reagan and ordered his newscasters to carry
right-wing propaganda. Fox also promotes George Bush,
attempting to portray everything Bush does as dramatic
and heroic. The network presents only upbeat economic
news and credits Bush for the stronger economy. Outfoxed
even alleges that Fox is an adjunct of the Republican
Party and uses pseudo experts whose main allegiance
is to the Republicans. And the so-called “Fair
and Balanced” reporters are anything but; for
example, we watch a cozy, off the air chat between
a smiling Bush and an awestruck reporter who is going
to be interviewing him. The reporter’s wife
is campaigning for Bush.
Fox News has also decided to present the war in Iraq
as a success. A poll shows that one-third of Fox viewers
believe that the US found weapons of mass destruction
in Iraq. Other polls show a high correlation between
watching Fox News and being confused and misinformed.
Former Fox News contributors claim that they worked
in an environment of fear and had to be proponents
of Murdoch’s point of view. The film shows a
number of copies of internal Fox memos with a conservative
point of view. Reporters who challenged the management
on their mindsets were risking termination, while
adlibs against the Democrats were welcome. Murdoch
personally dislikes the Kennedys, Jesse Jackson, Bill
Clinton, and Richard Clarke, (former cyberspace security
advisor and author of Against All Enemies). Memos
to Fox’s staff mandate negative spin on these
notables.
Fox News techniques include reporters often using
the phrase “People say” or “People
are saying” as an introduction to a question
or comment. The reporters can then advance Fox’s
opinion.
Fox management has told reporters to ask the Democrats
tough questions but not the Republicans. Republicans
appear on Fox five times as often as Democrats. And
the Democrats who are invited tend to be centrists
or conservatives brought on to agree with Bush’s
policies. Murdoch contends that Fox has liberal commentators,
but Outfoxed argues that much of the time these liberals
are weak advocates who know that they can’t
challenge the Fox ideology too forcefully or they
won‘t be invited back. Fox News, in a violation
of journalistic standards, continually blends news
and commentary. For example, Brit Hume, the news anchor,
is “a caustic right-wing pundit.”
Outfoxed also has a segment on Fox’s infamous
Bill O’Reilly, host of “The O’Reilly
Factor.” O’Reilly frequently tells people
who disagree with his version of the truth to “shut
up.” Outfoxed shows O’Reilly’s jaw-dropping
interview with a polite young man whose father died
in the 9/11 attacks. The young man is against the
war in Iraq and for this, is verbally assaulted by
O’Reilly. When the man tries to present his
point of view, O’Reilly tells him to shut up,
gestures to a security guard to remove him, and threatens
to harm him. We then see how, over the following months,
O’Reilly increasingly distorts the man’s
statements. By the end of this segment we’re
wondering: is Bill O’Reilly deranged? Well,
people are saying…
Outfoxed claims that Fox builds up viewers’
fear so now everything is converted into terrorism
and we’ll look to a strong government to protect
us. This right wing misdirected fear got us into the
war in Iraq.
Worst of all is that at 2 a.m. on the last Presidential
election night, Fox News claimed that Bush had won
when the reality was that the race was too close to
call. The other major news stations quickly followed
Fox’s lead (except for the Associated Press).
This resulted in the perception that Bush had won,
and Bush was the presumptive President for the next
37 days. Outfoxed maintains that this false perception
had more to do with the eventual outcome than the
Supreme Court’s decision. Fox eventually apologized
for its mistake.
Fox is so powerful that the public needs to be aware
and start organizing to take back the power. Otherwise
corporations like Murdoch’s will continue to
control the airwaves. Because of this danger, MoveOn.org
and Common Cause have filed a petition with the Federal
Trade Commission. The petition asks that the Commission
bring a complaint against Fox News Network for the
deceptive practice of using its “Fair and Balanced”
trademark, because it’s consumer fraud.
Unfortunately, because of technical problems, by
the time the 5:30 screening of Outfoxed was over,
there were only a few minutes for discussion and questions
before the 7:45 showing. Eric Alterman maintained
that because of propaganda like Fox News, it’s
easy for our leaders to mislead us. Michael Tomasky
said that on election night it was actually George
Bush’s cousin, who worked at Fox, who called
the election for Bush at 2 a.m.
Outfoxed has, at least for now, limited theater distribution.
However, it’s currently the best selling DVD
at Amazon.com and can also be purchased at outfoxed.org.
The petition to the FTC and how to sign on to it can
be found at outfoxed.org, MoveOn.org or commoncause.org.
Outfoxed.org includes a copy of a letter that's being
drafted by members of Congress to Murdoch. So far,
40 members of Congress have signed it.
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