Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism

Plot

While the Fox News cable network has promoted itself as a "fair and balanced" news outlet -- so much so that they've even trademarked the phrase -- not everyone believes that they're living up to their slogan, and this activist documentary by filmmaker Robert Greenwald takes a close look at the political perspective of Fox's coverage. Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism examines the right-wing slant of Fox News' reporting, as represented in stories the network chooses to cover and their shoehorning of editorial opinion into stories, revealed in interviews with former Fox employees and several noted journalists (including Walter Cronkite) who discuss the pro-conservative, anti-Democratic views of the channel's management and how they're manifested in their programming. The film also puts talk show host Bill O'Reilly under the microscope and offers potent examples of his frequently abrasive interviewing style. Production of Outfoxed was supported in part by the leftist political action network Moveon.org. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Review

This indictment of the Fox News Network is a raw but effective piece of work. Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism is a low-budget, low-tech affair that consists primarily of talking-head footage intercut with cleverly selected clips from Fox News. It's also a bit slanted: the only people interviewed are disgruntled former employees or media professionals who are critical of the Fox News Network to begin with. That said, Outfoxed never seems unfair or unreasonable in its criticisms because it makes its points in a quiet, rational fashion and more often than not provides footage to back up each one. Along the way, Outfoxed shows how hypocritical and malicious some of Fox News' on-air personalities can be (especially Bill O'Reilly) and reveals a lot of underhanded tricks used by the network to slant the news: a good examples of this kind of tactic is the way they have newscasters slip network-approved opinions into their reports by prefacing them with the phrase "some people say." In short, some people might be dissuaded by the inherent biases of Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, but the film offers enough solid information to make it well worth a viewing for anyone interested in how the modern news media works. ~ Donald Guarisco, Rovi

Cast

• Douglas Cheek - Narrator

Walter Cronkite; Al Franken; Robert McChesney; Mark Crispin Miller; David Brock; Eric Alterman; Wally Bowen; Jeff Chester; Jeff Cohen; Mark Cooper; Malkia Cyril; John Dunbar; Clara Frenk; David Goodfriend; Peter Hart; Larry Irving; Gene Kimmelman; John Nichols; Chellie Pingree; Steve Rendall; Bernie Sanders; James Wolcott; Av Westin

Credit

Jim Gilliam - Co-producer, Kate McArdle - Co-producer, Devin Smith - Co-producer, Laurel Busby - Co-producer, Robert Greenwald - Director, Douglas Cheek - Editor, Jane Abramawitz - Editor, Chris Gordon - Editor, Richard Gibbs - Composer (Music Score), Nicholas O'Toole - Composer (Music Score), Glen Pearcy - Cinematographer, Richard Perez - Cinematographer, William M. Miller - Cinematographer, James Curry - Cinematographer, Luke Riffle - Cinematographer, Eugene Thompson - Cinematographer, Robert 'Sully' Sullivan - Cinematographer, Robert Greenwald - Producer, Dave Hutten - Sound/Sound Designer, Mark Jasper - Sound Editor, Greg Castillo - Production Assistant, Jason Ajax Mercer - Post Production Supervisor, Ernesto Matamoros - Graphic Design, Jason Ajax Mercer - Assistant Editor

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