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Outfoxed at the News ConferenceOutfoxed at the News ConferenceOutfoxed at the News ConferenceOutfoxed at the News Conference

 

 

Outfoxed at the News Conference

 

By Anthony Wade

 

OpEdNews.Com

 

"Monopolies are a terrible thing, until you have one", was a quote attributed to Rupert Murdoch at the press conference yesterday to announce the release of Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism. This article is merely a  summary of the press conference. After I have reviewed the documentary, more commentary will follow.

 

Media consolidation in America is a large scale problem that goes beyond just FOX. It goes to the very heart of our system. People rely on news, as a source of fact, from which they can draw an opinion. According to this documentary and the whistleblowers from the media giant, FOX news blurs the line between commentary and reporting to the point that neither is visible, and the viewer is left to conclude that which is commentary to be taken as fact.

 

The press conference began with Eric Alterman from the Center for American Progress discussing the importance of exposing FOX as nothing more than a tool of propaganda for the Bush administration. After Mr. Alterman, the Director, Robert Greenwald spoke briefly, about his efforts, conducted in secrecy over the last seven months to produce this film. This will be one of the bones of contention with this film from the right, which is that it amounts to guerrilla filmmaking, as Mr. Greenwald did not ask even for a response from FOX as to the allegations being made against them. Keep in mind as you hear those challenges, who is upset with it and what their own political agenda is. The bottom line is that Mr. Greenwald had to use many clips from FOX News to prove his point. Had he been up front with FOX, they certainly would have proceeded not with an intelligent response, but rather with legal proceedings backed by a billionaire owner. Greenwald would not have stood a chance. He should be commended for his bravery in taking on the very powerful, who seek to manipulate the media for political gain.

 

Mr. Greenwald expressed his desire to remain objective in this effort. To do so, he used four important aspects he says displays a pattern of behavior that is clearly partisan, and not befitting any news station, let alone one that uses the tag line "Fair and Balanced". To achieve this pattern, we need to look at four separate areas which combine to produce the pattern. One is the clips from FOX shows. Secondly is the testimony of the former FOX employees, who stated different versions of the same "pressure" to slant the news, not report it. Thirdly, is a cache of internal memos given out to FOX staff, purportedly instructing them to slant the news (I have copies of these memos and will be reviewing them with the movie tonight). Lastly, Greenwald commissioned a study by FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) to see if indeed bias could be found. One conclusion of that study discussed at the press conference was a six-month study of guests of the Special Report with Brit Hume Show displayed 83% right-wing guests, to 17% left wing guests. Additionally, of the 17%, most of these guests are what people widely consider as centrist democrats. Mr. Greenwald believes these four aspects combine to expose FOX as unfair, unbalanced, and nothing more than a shill for this administration. He correctly pointed out that it isn't about conservative voice; it is about parroting the administration's daily talking points. A lot of conservatives are angry at this administration, especially when you get into the reckless fiscal policies. FOX does not support a strict conservative ideology according to Greenwald. Rather, they simply support whatever the President does and says. A serious charge indeed.

 

The former employees spoke next. Larry Johnson spoke about how he was a lifelong republican and has even donated money to Bush, but he felt that no President should have a news station serving as his propaganda tool. Clara Frenk was a booker for FOX who noticed how unbalanced the guests were and was promptly ignored by her superiors. She expressed how the set up was to always pit a strong right wing guest with a centrist, and often unknown left wing guest. David Korb was a writer who expressed that his copy had been changed, although he had not been able to save any such examples. Instead, it was the memos which were more damning to him, like the one that suggested that FOX employees should not focus on any actual deaths in Iraq , instead playing up the fact that we were restoring democracy.

 

The last speaker was Chellie Pingree, the President and CEO of Common Cause, another sponsor of the press conference and of the campaign against media consolidation in this country. The brief Q & A session was introduced as only being for 10 minutes with no allowance for follow up because of the time constraints. FOX had dispatched a reporter to the press conference who tried to monopolize the entire ten minutes. Asking Greenwald the first question, he persisted after the answer with a follow up. When that was answered by several panel members, he tried to ask a third question and had to be shouted down by the other reporters, one of which said "stop acting like your network!" It was a fitting piece of irony that this reporter embodies the bullying nature of FOX, which was a main point of the documentary.

 

Greenwald plans on having Move On organize 2000 house parties across this country to view the film, after it premiers tonight at NYU. These house parties are due to occur next week. His hope from there is that it will catch on. He correctly pointed out that nothing seems more democratic than people gathering together in their houses to watch this film and discuss its merits. I agree.

 

As we were leaving the press conference, more FOX employees were standing outside to hand out the response from FOX. The response was pure spin, in typical FOX fashion. Without addressing the legitimate points that may have been brought up, it was crafted in an intimidating style, with comments such as "if any news organizations decide to make this an anti-Fox News story, then all of their material becomes fodder immediately for possible out of context and biased documentaries". The message is pretty clear there, proceed at your own risk, and do not cross FOX. The response also attempts to smear the ex-employees saying they are "hardly worth addressing" "low level employees", some of whom left due to "incompetence".

 

This is an important story. Passing itself off as "news" with snazzy catch phrases like "we report, you decide", when really the station is nothing more than an arm of the Bush administration, is potentially one of the biggest stories of the year, if it is noticed. FOX has consistently lied, distorted and manipulated the facts and passed it off as journalism. They have hired such notable criminals as Oliver North and Mark Furman and passed them off as FOX News contributors (in North's case, he got his own show!). Last night O'Reilly brought on Newt Gingrich to talk about how vile the political discourse has become, toward President Bush. Never mind that the venom spewed by Gingrich during his tenure of Speaker of the House was the worst in history. Never mind that he castigated Clinton daily for his indiscretions while he was sleeping with a 20-something woman behind his own wife's back.  These are the experts for FOX.

 

I am sure that FOX will downplay this publicly as long as possible, while pursuing legal means of shutting it down. Never addressing the important issues it raises. In one scene, we see Carl Cameron, covering the Bush campaign in 2000, joking with Bush before they go live. The subject matter? Cameron's wife being a campaigner for Bush. Conflict of interest anyone? Not for FOX News. Just business as usual. Fair and Balanced indeed.

 

Anthony Wade is an independent writer from New York .
Email to takebacktheus@gmail.com

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