Outfoxed (2004)
My reaction to "Outfoxed" was the
same reaction that I had to "Control
Room;" No Duh! "Control Room," which played arthouses
this summer, is a documentary about Iraq's Al- Jezeera
TV and it acts surprised and outraged that the American
military has taken over the media in Iraq and slants
newsworthy events to a pro-American point of view.
No Duh! (It's a war people). "Outfoxed" is a documentary
about how cable TV's Fox News Network is a right-wing
slanted editorial entity and not a news outlet at
all and about how it states that it is "Fair and Balanced"
when in fact it isn't. No Duh!
Still, this is 2004, a year that
seems like 1984 more than any other in recent memory,
and one can't help but wonder if there aren't some
poor misguided souls out there who don't know this
and who would be outraged if they did know this. The
film is very popular with young people and at college
campuses and. I guess, it is important that young
people be exposed to this obvious notion, just in
case they hadn't had time to consider it. After all,
classes and ways to get high and get laid do take
up a considerable amount of brain time.
"Outfoxed" has 90 minutes of Fox
New Network at its very right-winged worst and that
alone makes it interesting. Watching the film show
Bill O'Reily, a man in need of a assassin's bullet
in the head if there ever was one, being the snot-nosed
hypocrite is quite fun. It comes as no surprise when
O'Reily-basher Al Franken agrees to be interviewed
to help prove it. This is jaw-dropping hilarious stuff.
But the saddest part of the film
is the segment on Jeremy Glick. A young man with a
fierce grip of the obvious when it comes to the politics
9/11, Glick lost his father in the World Trade Center
attacks. Because he opposed the war in Iraq and President
Bush, O'Reily has Glick on his show and attacks him
with a snarling dog mentality that will make you nauseous.
In my book, Glick is an American Hero! I only hope
that he can find understanding in his heart for a
country that believes in free speech so deeply that
we even allow an obvious traitor to the American spirit
like O'Reily to have his say and a national forum
like his platform on Fox News Network.
The biggest problem with "Outfoxed,"
other than its "Duh" reason for not needing to exist,
is that it doesn't give the viewer any understanding
at all about Rupert Murdoch, the right-wing supporting,
Australian media mogul who owns the outlet. After
seeing the film, we still have no real clue as to
why Murdoch allows the outlet to spew such violent
right- wing hatred in his name.
Notes:
Full title is "Outfoxed: Rupert
Murdoch's War on Journalism."
Eric Clapton's "Layla" is used in
the film and the director got the rights to it for
free because the musician hates Murdoch for some reason.
Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry" is also used several
times.
The film premiered simultaneously
on DVD at house parties across America on July 18th,
2004 and the viewers and some of the participants
in the film chatted via the Internet afterwards.
It is said that filmmaker Robert
Greenwald and his producers had several groups of
people watch and record Fox News for 24 hours a day
for several weeks as the helped to catch important
moments in programming and give the highlights to
them thus saving much time in gathering and editing
the film which is made up primarily of Fox programming.
This use was contested by Fox publicly who knew that
they had no right to challenge it legally due to the
"fair usage" idea in the rights to free speech.
Several former Fox News employees
and several members of media watchdog groups are interviewed
for the film.
Viewed on a VHS screener provided
by the Dobie theater in August, 2004.
