Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism

2004
7.5| 1h14m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 14 July 2004 Released
Producted By:
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.outfoxed.org/
Synopsis

This film examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a "race to the bottom" in television news, and provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangerous impact on society when a broad swath of media is controlled by one person. Media experts, including 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."

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Reviews

Greenes Please don't spend money on this.
ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.
Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.
cille-09600 This documentary highlights everything that's bad about Fox News. It is scary to watch how biased a news channel can be - especially when their own slogan used to be "Fair and Balanced". You want to laugh out loud in disgust an disbelief that Fox News in fact promotes themselves as balanced - when they are everything but! They are definitely doing everything WRONG when it comes to journalistic standards - and serving their very well thought messages to the people as "news". Fox News is a propaganda machine for very conservative, republican values - and at least they should own up to it and declare what they are - instead of acting like they are fair and balanced. It is a disgrace for journalism that a news channel like Fox News exists. This documentary is very powerful, and it is so important that people realize how biased Fox News is. I really loved the part where the hosts are all saying "some people say" - instead of citing actual sources. It is so ridiculous! I love that this documentary is showing these awful methods.
Stephen Alfieri For anyone who has cable, and is therefore exposed to the Fox network, there really is no need to view this movie. Anything that you may want to know about Fox can be learned by watching any of the shows on this channel for a week."Outfoxed" is a well made documentary that offers an alternative perspective to how Rupert Murdoch and the rest of "the boys" at Fox view the media and it's role. Journalists expect a news network to be objective, and report on what's happening without providing a slanted view of the news. Rupert Murdoch believes that the media should act as advocate for a cause, or idea, or a man (in this case George Bush).I'm willing to bet that anyone who sees this film will not "convert to the other side". I don't think that there are going to be too many people who see this film, who will not already have decided whether or not they agree that Fox is "Fair and Balanced"But despite the well intentions of the film makers, there is ultimately nothing new that is offered as fresh perspective, in this film. 6 out of 10
dy158 America pride in calling herself part of the 'free world'. Me, coming from a country where we are at times being criticised by international community that our media scene here are being like controlled somewhat (we are a democratic country here too for crying out loud, just that our system is very different given our small land size!), it was partially curiosity I watched this like last year or something.I want to see how the country which prides itself in democracy and all that handle the news to its own public.I only know I just kept forgetting to comment on it here till now. For this person here who seriously once considered to go into mass communications, I admit, I actually once have this very naive mindset of American media through those TV shows which made their way here to my country. That is maybe till I started to read the papers and watched the news, that is.I had never heard of FOX News Channel till this documentary made its way here like last year or something (and now earlier this year, FOX News Channel made its way to our cable TV scene here). As I was watching this documentary, it was very shocking at times at how presenters like Bill O'Reilly are really like. Shutting people up in a middle of a conversation? If it's because of time constraints, I can maybe understand. But his manner is almost so sickening. I had did some background reading on the guy and it just making me shaking my head.Been aware how the world at times 'attacked' our state of media scene here and saying the media here is being controlled by the government and so on, I was very surprised at the state of American media after watching this. Guess I was being naive for too long.For the record, my family didn't subscribe to FOX News Channel because actually, it was part of a package and my father decided that we do not have the means to subscribe to it. Because maybe even given if we have that, I don't think I will watch that channel too much. I had even once read a comment from a cable TV subscriber who wrote to the cable TV magazine that after once spending some time in America, he had seen how FOX News Channel is like and dislike Bill O'Reilly's style of journalism.Maybe as long we are all human beings, we can tend to take sides here and there and it's unavoidable. And looking at this documentary makes me think one step further especially of the state of the American media through the FOX News Channel (which prides itself in providing 'fair and balanced' news).The conclusion is based on my title for this review.
Bryan Way I'll start by stating that I'm a 20 year old liberal Democrat who voted for Kerry. I'm also a film student at Temple University.The assembly of this documentary is haphazard at best. The cheesy 'PowerPoint' graphics that slog the film to a start are mind-numbingly terrible. Any clips of any show that is being put on display are often so short that just about any statement made can be taken out of context. Many of the people being interviewed seem useless to the piece as their 'expertise' on the subject matter is questionable at best.On the other side, there's a lot of people I hear talking about the liberal media. This is as real to me as Tom Cruise's relationship with Katie Holmes. Clinton got blasted just the same as Bush has, but it seems when the right finds out about any negative press, they cry out that the liberal media is brainwashing the American public. Newsflash: The liberal media is less apparent than the conservative media. Look at the prevalence of conservative radio alone. The worst press Bush gets is over his approval ratings, and it's hard to fake those. On Fox, certain words and phrases DO denote that their anchors and programs are right-wing. Trumpeting Bush's election win months before the election is a good start, but when one anchor utters (with 'Fair And Balanced' hovering in the background) "...If the unthinkable were to happen and Kerry gets elected..." the jig is up. Also, when O'Reilly tells the audience that anyone who doesn't agree with the war on Iraq is unamerican and should 'shut up', he certainly reveals his true colors.Regardless, this film is an indictment of Fox's 'Fair And Balanced' views, and that's what everyone should focus on. It's clear as this program progresses that Fox is an entirely conservative news network. If they came out and admitted it, or at least got rid of their 'Fair And Balanced' tag, everyone would be better off. As far as the information conveyed as a solid whole, this documentary succeeds in providing a wealth of information to back its points. You can't expect that it's going to be 'Fair And Balanced'. It's a documentary. In the first documentary (Nanook Of The North, 1922) director Flaherty did such things as making the Inuits use a harpoon to kill the walrus when they had been using rifles for years and when he accidentally burned his film, recreated some scenes by directing Nanook.