Outfoxed

Yesterday my Outfoxed DVD arrived and Jfer and I promptly watched it. We didn't get to go to one of the house parties on Sunday (Tim enjoyed his) so I was glad to get my own copy.

The movie consists of archival FOXNews footage, interviews with former FOXNews employees and discussions with media pundits, including Walter Cronkite. As a documentary, I find it better than Fahrenheit 9/11 -- and the topic much more chilling.

I knew that FOXNews, like the rest of Murdoch's media empire, has a conservative slant. I didn't realise just how effective a propaganda machine they are. Their continuous and relentless repetition of the GOP's talking points that permeates their "news" and talk segments is simply amazing. It's not journalism -- it's infotainment and misinformation at its worst.

I used to wonder how people could possibly lap up the Bush administration's version of reality, what with all sorts of media outlets contradicting it. I didn't realise that most people simply don't bother to go to other sources. That's really bad news when Fox is supposedly the most watched "news" cable channel -- and its viewers are consitently among the most misinformed. The Program on International Policy Attitudes has several interesting studies. Their Misperceptions, The Media and The Iraq War (315KB PDF) from last October is very telling. FOXNews viewers are consistently misinformed about Iraq-related issues -- and at an amazing rate (although other mainstream news viewers aren't all that much better). For example, 67% of FOXNews viewers had the impression that the US has found evidence in Iraq that Saddam Hussein was working closely with Al Quaeda (compared to 16% of NPR/PBS viewers). And no, we have not, despite the fuzzy claims that Dick Cheney's still making. The sad thing is that the deluded FOXNews viewers think they know the facts, since they are getting an objective "fair and balanced" scoop.

It really wouldn't be that bad if FOXNews were simply a conservative news organization. They're not simply conservative -- a valid viewpoint, even if I disagree with it on most things -- but instead their reporting closely tracks the Bush administration's policy and whenever Bush flips-flops on an issue (for example from being against the Homeland Security Department to being for it) they flip-flop right along with him without missing a beat -- or questioning the change in direction. Over and over and over again they take the GOP's spin on news, even if it happens to be against conservative principles.

Having grown up in Czechoslovakia where pretty much all the media was state controlled, everyone knew that the stuff on TV was one-sided BS (no-one believed they were in a "worker's paradise" or that the west was a bunch of imperialists bent on their exploitation). People either ignored the propaganda or they got other news by secretly listening to VOA or Radio Free Europe. The insidiousness of FOXNews is that people are clueless to the fact that it's propaganda. Why, it's fair and balanced -- it says so right there on the TV screen in front of those waving stars and stripes.

Let me know if you want to borrow the movie from me -- I highly recommend a viewing. But hurry up, I'm planning to donate my copy to the public library.