Cunning

Originally posted by kungf00 in adbusters.

"I challenge anybody to show me an example of bias in Fox News Channel."
--Rupert Murdoch (Salon, 3/1/01)

Okay, done. And done rather well and extensively by all the people and organizations below:


From the Outfoxed website:

"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.

Media experts, including Walter Cronkite, Jeff Cohen (FAIR) Bob McChesney (Free Press), Chellie Pingree (Common Cause), Jeff Chester (Center for Digital Democracy) and David Brock (Media Matters) provide context and guidance for the story of Fox News and its effect on society.

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."

A collection of further information and analysis surrounding this movie:

• The New York Times: How to Make a Guerrilla Documentary
• From Salon.com: Happy talk from hell
• FAIR.org's older report on Fox: The Most Biased Name in News: Fox News Channel's extraordinary right-wing tilt
• FAIR.org has a new report: Still Failing the "Fair & Balanced" Test
• MediaMatters.org shines light on Fox's response: FOX's response to Outfoxed charge of "bias toward Republicans": "FNC denies the claim"
• MediaMatters.org goes in-depth on memos: 33 internal FOX editorial memos reviewed by MMFA reveal FOX News Channel's inner workings
• Again, MMFA nails it: FOX & Friends' Republican bias trifecta
• Eric Alterman, from his own Altercation blog, rightly points out Howard Kurtz's own slant in his piece on Outfoxed: "We note that Howie Kurtz's coverage perfectly reflects the attitude of a man who is married to a Republican media consultant and seeks to do her bidding."
• Eye-opening: a letter from Charlie Reina, an ex-staffer at Fox News about The Memo. "...Not once in the 20+ years I had worked in broadcast journalism prior to Fox - including lengthy stays at The Associated Press, CBS Radio and ABC/Good Morning America - did I feel any pressure to toe a management line. But at Fox, if my boss wasn't warning me to "be careful" how I handled the writing of a special about Ronald Reagan ..., he was telling me how the environmental special I was to produce should lean."
• Mark Jurkowitz at The Boston Globe: Film takes on right angle of Fox News Channel. "The film lacks traditional journalistic balance, sometimes making no distinction between Fox staffers and outside pundits and sources." Actually, Fox often fails to make similar distinctions themself between pundits and journalists, and often will have journalists swap between journalist and pundit roles, which Jurkowitz goes on to rightly point out.
• David Cole, the law professor, recounts how Bill O'Reilly re-tapes a piece in order to purposefully leave out information about the 9/11 Commission's findings: My First (and Last) Time with Bill O'Reilly

(thanks to Eric Alterman for many of the above links)

Fox retorts:

• the FOX News Channel Statement on 'Outfoxed'.
• Details About Employees Featured in 'Outfoxed'

Despite their claims in the "Details About Employees..." piece, this mediamatters.org report explains (linked above as well) that the people they claim didn't work for the FOX News Channel still worked for affiliates owned by News Corp, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, the real subject of the film in question.

FAIR.org and MediaMatters.org compile their News Corp/Fox resources:

• The rest of FAIR.org's many resources on News Corp/Fox
• MediaMatters.org's every-growing compendium of heat: Fox Under Fire

"How can I see this documentary?" You can either go to the Outfoxed website and purchase a copy on VHS or DVD, or you can go here to find out where MoveOn.org is hosting house parties in your neighborhood around the nation on July 18th Or, if you'd like to host your own, you can do that too.

From the Fox-isn't-dead-yet dept., it looks like Fox will be starting a reality channel next year. Haha!

I make it no secret that I think privatized and unregulated media ownership is a terrible thing. Forever the right-wing establishment bellyaches about the supposedly liberal media. However many major domestic US media outlets are so obviously swinging right of centre as their ownership homogenizes with people of particular political interest.

Most interesting about this film is it's use of Fox coverage. In a just and free society of course we are free to re-approriate footage and other intellectualy property as we see fit to express ourselves. However this case has not been made legal precident in the courts as of yet. With hugely powerful groups like the MPAA and RIAA lobbying government to restrict the fair use rights of Americans the outlook is bleak. Creative resistance is unfortunately the last viable resort in this respect.