Film takes on right angle of Fox News Channel
Among media watchers, a debate has long raged about whether Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel is the "fair and balanced" antidote to pervasive liberal media bias that it claims to be in its promotion or a megaphone for spreading conservative dogma.
In the film "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism," which premiered last night in New York, liberal filmmaker Robert Greenwald launches an all-out attack on the cable news channel's editorial integrity. Relying on former Fox employees and contributors, left-leaning critics, Fox News Channel footage, and internal memos, the film argues that the outlet is less a traditional news operation than, as former Fox News staffer Jon Du Pre put it, "a proponent of a point of view."
Greenwald said he decided to make "Outfoxed" after hearing from journalists about what he called "the Foxification Effect," which he described as "pseudo-patriotism and the dumbing-down and cheapening of news." The film lacks traditional journalistic balance, sometimes making no distinction between Fox staffers and outside pundits and sources. And it uses the cable channel as a poster child for the ills of corporate conglomeration when much of the same could be said about a number of mega media companies. Greenwald also did not contact Fox for comment, explaining that he was afraid the network might sue and adding, "They're on the air 24/7. Everyone knows what they think, feel, and say."
But there is some damning material in "Outfoxed," including the charge that news and commentary blur confusingly on an outlet that is the undisputed cable news ratings leader. At one point, Neil Cavuto, anchor of Fox News Channel's business show, blurts out, "assuming the unthinkable happens and that Senator [John] Kerry becomes president. . . ." Several clips depict prime-time host Bill O'Reilly berating and silencing guests who don't agree with his loudly enunciated worldview. Then there are the memos from senior vice president for news John Moody, some of which seem to have political undertones.
One such message concerning Iraq warned the staff to "not fall into the easy trap of mourning the loss of US lives and asking aloud why are we there? The US is in Iraq to help a country brutalized for 30 years protect the gains made by Operation Iraqi Freedom. . . ." Another told personnel to call US Marines " `sharpshooters' not snipers, which carries a negative connotation." On another occasion, Moody advised employees not to turn the 9/11 commission hearings into Watergate.
"This is not `what did he know and when did he know it' stuff," Moody wrote. "Remember the fleeting sense of national unity that emerged from this tragedy. Let's not desecrate that."
Contacted by the Globe, a Fox News Channel spokesman declined to discuss the film's allegations and directed the paper to a company response printed in a
Traditionally, many conservatives have expressed the belief that the news media are infected with liberal bias. A Pew Research Center poll in January found that 42 percent of Republicans said that 2004 campaign coverage was biased in favor of the Democrats. But the same survey found that a growing number of Democrats -- 29 percent -- said political news was slanted to the right, a development that the center's director, Andrew Kohut, chalked up to "the emergence of Fox as a news outlet with a more conservative point of view."
Fox News Channel is a lightning rod in the debate over media bias. And Greenwald's "Outfoxed" will probably be viewed as further evidence of an aggressive liberal effort to discredit the Bush administration and criticize the news media in this election year. A recent spate of films -- most notably Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- have attacked US policy in Iraq and accused journalists of failing to scrutinize the White House rationale for the war in Iraq. One of them, "Uncovered: The War on Iraq," was also a Greenwald film.
"Outfoxed" was a collaborative effort, funded in part by two liberal groups, MoveOn and the Center for American Progress. MoveOn and Common Cause also plan to help promote Greenwald's work by hosting a series of house parties at which the film will be shown. And the liberal media watchdog group FAIR -- which Greenwald commissioned to do a study of people interviewed on Fox News Channel's signature news show "Special Report With Brit Hume" -- concluded that conservative guests outnumbered liberals by more than five to one.
In the spirit of Greenwald's film, the headline on that study -- "Still Failing the `Fair & Balanced' Test," -- took dead aim at Fox News Channel's famous slogan and its claim of journalistic objectivity.
