OUTFOXED: RUPERT MURDOCH’S WAR ON JOURNALISM (2004)

SHORT REVIEW: It’s a carnival of hypocrisy. Watching this is like having Michael Moore complain that you’ve "let yourself go." This is an uncut liberal rant. That is obvious. The thing was made possible by moveon.org after all. As a hit piece its slightly effective but doesn’t really make it. There are small slices of truth but the taste of them is overwhelmed by a heaping serving of B.S. I agree with the following concepts from this grumbling effort: 1) FoxNews is right-wing. 2) FoxNews uses the flag in it advertising. 3) FoxNews has good looking people on it. 4) FoxNews should not use their annoying "FoxNews Alert" to tell me meaningless news. 5) Bill O’Reilly’s behavior is self-serving and often grating. There’s a few more items I agree with as well. I have a problem with how much control corporations have over the distribution of news. I have a problem with such a small amount of people controlling the news as well. I would hope that’s not a conservative/liberal issue. It seems to me to be an inherently bad thing. This documentary touches on these points but pushes them aside for the most petty and childish complaints. The film drifts off to complaining that reporters on FoxNews use "some people" while discussing events. An example of this is "Some people say liberals are warmed-over Marxists" or "Some people say many liberals project their problems with their family onto the rest of the world." It is a common interviewing and reporting crutch used in all of the media. It is a way people can say things without saying it themselves. FoxNews does it, but who in the media doesn’t? The documentary’s biggest flaw is its complete lack of reflection on the media in general. They have Walter Cronkite looking down on FoxNews for bias. This is Walter "This war is unwinable" Cronkite. Walter and his ilk in the network newsrooms can complain that FoxNews is nothing more than a schill for Republicans. They claim it is destroying the cherished role of journalists in America. Well, they can blame themselves. FoxNews was born from a market need for something that wasn’t overly liberal. CNN and network news are festering sores of liberalism on the golden calf of journalism. The only reason why Walter Cronkite has been so revered his whole life is because of the stranglehold the MSM has had on the populace. For decades you had three broadcast news outlets slinging leftist views without anyone checking them. Why is this the only kind of corporate control of the media liberals like? To end, FoxNews should be watched with discernment, even by conservatives. Like all broadcast journalism, they are not there to help you – they’re there to tell you what to think. That is their function. That said, I stand with the enemy of my enemy.