Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (2004)

People are voting emotionally.

Overrated and overhyped

Absolutely Brilliant!

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

In Robert Greenwald's documentary Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism we come away with one very important message. The media is controlled by corporations. This is what defines the media, and it's because of this that we have Rupert Murdoch taking over the Fox News Channel and turning it into the Conservative machine that spews out right wing bias on a daily basis. Outfoxed takes an in depth look at Fox News and brings to light what makes it tick and the tricks it pulls behind closed doors to become the most bias news station on television.Now, back in 2004 when this came out I could see how Outfoxed would be horribly shocking. It does a great job at pulling back the curtain on Fox News and it reveals some really disturbing things about them. From the way they focus on stories that look good for Conservatives while avoiding others that won't push their agenda, to the tricks they employ to make them seem "fair and balanced" the ridiculous slogan of the network. However, it is 2012 now. Eight years have gone by and Fox News is still like it was when this film came out, but more of us know that now. Fox News is just one big joke today, a news organization that can't be taken seriously, or at least shouldn't be taken seriously. For this reason, watching Outfoxed was just taking in a lot of information I already knew or could have already gathered from my knowledge of what a moronic news organization Fox News is.That being said, Outfoxed is very important, albeit a little redundant. It doesn't hold back on the punches it pulls at Fox, never backing down on its relentless fight to detail Fox's conservative bias. It's got a lot of great information, presents a lot of well spoken individuals to talk about the issues here, and, despite it looking like something that was edited on Windows Movie Maker, it's a pretty well made film. Mainstream media is just such a joke these days that the inspiration to remove bias from the media that the film tries to instill in its viewers is fairly futile. It's unfortunate that that is the case, but the chance of having an unbias media today just seems too fargone to do anything about it. Outfoxed does all that it can, but it may all be for nought.

>Outfoxed< shows how FoX News Channel has developed a format intended more to manipulate the thoughts of viewers than to inform. FoX, which claims to be "Fair and Balanced" is the antithesis of fairness and balance, as the documentary shows.The creators of >Outfoxed< give credit to FoX News for slick innovations in television journalism, including the establishment of a corporate identity (one could never confuse FoX News with some other form of TV journalism), musical motifs that set the tone, and such a device as the "FoX News Alert" that draws attention to a breaking story. But they also expose the manipulativeness of FoX News for misusing the News Alert for titillating items.The documentary shows how those who go along with FoX News' editorial opinions get the royal treatment, yet those who run afoul of it get cut down. Bill O'Reilly is shown telling his interviewees to "Shut up!" when they go 'too far' in contradicting him and, in one case, the use of odd camera angles to make someone who disagrees with him (a son of a 9/11 victim refusing to go along with the aggressive foreign policy of the Bush Administration) look like a terrorist, bum, or monster. It also shows how FoX debased reporting at formerly-independent TV stations such as WTTG (Channel 5 in Washington DC) as Murdoch took them over.The great fault of FoX News is that although it consumes much time of a viewer it offers little news -- but much scripted analysis intended more to convince than to inform. >Outfoxed< gets FoX... right.

Three interconnected essentials of human function are the appetitive, spirited, and rational elements. When each of them demonstrate their characteristics, then one is well controlled, and one benefits from synchronization. Just as a well-ordered state is a just state, someone who enjoys harmony among his three basic elements is a perfectly just, morally good, person. Disharmonious persons cannot be truly happy.Anything but harmony amongst these rudiments therefore leads to one not truly being happy. For anyone who seems fair and balanced on the outside but actually is unfair and biased on the inside, the appetitive and spirited elements have become overbearing. One has lost rational control of their actions. Injustice is a party among these elements, their interfering with and disturbing each other's functions.For Murdoch and the FOX News people, the appetitive element wins out, leading to the accumulation of greater wealth, pleasure, and power. But when the appetitive exceeds its limit, no longer managed rationally, these people may have overabundant amounts of money, luxury, clout, and privilege, yet with the pressures of the immoral things they do for them. Their appetitive have conquered their rational, evidenced by their lifestyles that suffer internal imbalance. They are not happy, albeit they enjoy relative freedom from legal prosecution.Some of them have spirited rudiments fulfilling their appetitive rather than rational. They're most obstinate in on-air confrontations and actually love those moments. The spirited element is a cause for stubbornness and spite, increasing their own inconsistency. One only lies to oneself to deny that Bill O'Reilly fills his head with false information. O'Reilly bears a strained spirited element.Because Fox is dishonest and biased among other things, none of them can be as happy as an actual journalist. You know, people who actually report the news. However, none of the FOX News people seem unhappy. This is because each one inside has a differing sense of happiness and a narrow conception of infighting. FOX News is astonishingly calculatedly insincere. Notice their phrasing pattern: "Some people say" rather than "officials say," what real journalists are trained to say. FOX "Liberals" are centrists, weaker speakers and less attractive than the Conservatives, who are always cleancut, outspoken. They buckle defensively, appearing to generally agree with the intractable Conservatives.Murdoch inherited a newspaper before his first magazine, first TV station, first record label, second TV station, first politician, airline, publishing house, cable channel and ultimately in the'80s, MetroMedia. Murdoch, who adored Reagan and the Republican Congress, ordered MetroMedia to up and adjourn their newscast and air a party-lined homage to Reagan airing at the RNC. Murdoch subsequently complained about coverage of race issues, AIDS, and the Kennedys. MetroMedia argues that it has 0 news value. Murdoch overpowers, not even allowing them to cut it down. Roger Ailes, campaign strategist for Nixon, Reagan, and Bush Sr., is appointed CEO & Chairman, announcing they "aspire to be premier journalists and restore objectivity where they find it lacking."FOX is in constant attack mode during Clinton's final term. The first person to call to say George W. Bush has been elected President of the United States is James Ellis, the man in charge of the FOX News election analysis division, where people crunch the polls. He is also Bush's first cousin. Around 2am, new data comes in from all over Florida showing that the numbers are too close to call a clear winner. Ellis calls it a clear win for George W. Bush. FOX then interrupts its ongoing election coverage to announce this. Within minutes, ABC, NBC, and CBS follow, not having time to clear that data. Weeks later when suspicions are at a boiling point, Ailes issues an apology.Richard Clarke states at a 9/11 Commission hearing that the government, including himself, has failed, asking understanding and forgiveness. FOX muds his name, calling him a Liberal flip-flopper just out to sell his book. All of Murdoch's 175 newspapers editorialize in favor of the Iraq War.Malicious, insensitive and all in all unforgivable monster O'Reilly has on his show Jeremy Glick, a young man whose father died on 9/11 who organized an anti-war petition. Glick prepares by taping each show and timing the amount of time it takes before O'Reilly cuts off his guests, infuriating O'Reilly with his competence and finally cuts his mike and cuts to commercial, threatens him, and execs encourage Glick to leave the building promptly because if O'Reilly sees him in the hallway, "he may end up in jail for assault." The next day, O'Reilly makes Glick out as a monster who claimed Bush planned 9/11. Months later, O'Reilly revisits this, claiming that that's not only "looney" but "defamation."What makes Outfoxed a competent documentary is its refusal to go on its word. Stock footage after stock footage pinpoints the blatant slant, the almost laughable level of preposterous untruthfulness and delusional superiority. It is difficult to build a solid argument against this documentary.

This movie is yet another offering from the Liberal Left ALA Michael Moore Boston Globe fraternity. A completely skewed and biased offering against a right leaning yet balanced News Organisation.Compared to the Left Wing bias spewed out by he likes of CBS, CNN and the BBC, Fox news offers an alternative commentary which the Left Wing elite despise.Hate driven rhetoric is the tool of the left, using lies and sound bites to give false impressions to discredit the likes of Bill Oreilly.PG from Dublin is typical of the target audience of this distorted propaganda sanctioned by the Bush hating liberal elite. Farenheit 9/11 is littered with lies and falsehoods. Outfoxed is Farenheit 9/11 without the humour. Lefties will love this one.