Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism
I watched this pretty interesting documentary yesterday directed by Robert Greenwald of Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price fame, among other popular albeit less known documentaries. As a filmmaker I think Greenwald is less than good. Long segments of Wal-Mart were cheesy and sobby, and likewise parts of Outfoxed look like they were made in PowerPoint and other parts look as if they were filmed using very cheap equipment. The cover of the DVD is also somewhat of an abomination, making massive and obnoxious use of the Photoshop liquefy filter – a favorite filter for 12 year old Photoshop users. What Greenwald does do well, however, is dig up information.
I think that anyone with any sort of skills in the art of perception is pretty positive that Fox (as a news channel) is extremely biased. Having an opinion and presenting it, however, is much different than presenting yourself as completely un-biased, then propagating to one side with unrelenting fervor, which is what Fox does and Outfoxed sets out to prove, and does a very good job via interviews with ex-employees, some of which stay anonymous, apparently frightened at the power that their former network has over their future career. Also used as evidence are memos from the top of the company dictating what topics are aloud to be covered and the angle they should be covered in, countless examples from the news network itself bending truths and ignoring or demonizing opposing viewpoints, among many other intriguing yet disturbing points.
Again, Fox being biased is no real news. What this movie does do is not point out to you that Fox is biased, but instead digs into the issue of Fox’s propagation, what effects it has had on its viewers (according to studies people that regularly watch Fox News are much, much more likely to be misinformed on simple facts such as “Did America find WMDs in Iraq?”), and how other networks have often copied Fox’s style of news being reported as entertainment and not information, because it gets ratings and every news corporation is a money making institution first and a journalistic institution second. This is definitely a movie worth watching whether you subscribe to Fox in any way for your news or not. It’s a great exposé, but remember that if you decide to watch it, I never said it was a great movie. If you’re in the mood for a cynical film about the news that is also a very great film, you might check out the 1976 classic Network. Which as it turns out was pretty prophetic.
Sounds interesting. This season of The Wire is also about the media and journalistic integrity or the lack thereof. Fictional show but, still, you know it’s pretty much how things really happen.
Yeah I heard about the subject of the last season of the Wire a while back – I’m really excited for it to finally be coming out. I would like to say that the subject of media would be my favorite of all the “big target” subjects the Wire has explored, but after thinking about it each one is very interesting to me. Blue collar struggles and the death of the middle class, the completely nonsensical “war” on drugs, the declining state of education in America, and the nature of politics at the local level all fascinate me… probably because each one impacts the direct world we live in so much.
I think the major contribution of Outfoxed to my life was that it made the Colbert Report about twice as funny for me as it was before. Outfoxed really helped me understand who Colbert is spoofing.