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Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism Director: Robert Greenwald Mercury Cinema from Wed 13 Oct to Wed 3 Nov 
On Friday 24/9, the Australian ran an opinion piece by bilious ultra-right Internet pundit Glenn Harlan Reynolds, in which he claims, among other things, that American news channel CBS and "most other" news media are biased towards the left. Like many other conservative myths (welfare moms and crack babies, for instance) the "liberal media" boogeyman covers up far more than it reveals. That CBS, a network which hired neo-conservative airhead Laura Ingraham and prematurely - and unfairly - awarded the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush, could in any way be considered liberal is a testament to just how far right the vile Fox News has pushed the American political landscape. Robert Greenwald, the filmmaker responsible for last year's controversial 'Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War' (and the 1980 Olivia Newton-John vehicle 'Xanadu,' fact fans) tackles the Fox Network head on in his new film, 'Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism.' The topic is not a new one - both Eric Alterman and Al Franken have written on it, in 'What Liberal Media?' and 'Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them,' respectively - but Greenwald is the first documentary filmmaker to confront it. And confront it he does. Through interviews with former Fox staffers and media warchdog groups, Greenwald ably demonstrates how Fox News pushes the Republican agenda and how vomitously inaccurate the Fox slogan "Fair and Balanced" really is. Greenwald gives us, as evidence, editorial edicts telling reporters which stories to focus on and how to cover them, the concerted campaigns to discredit 9/11 whistleblower Richard Clarke and Democrat candidate John Kerry and to lionise George W. Bush, and the near-total erosion of the boundary between news and editorial segments. His neatest trick is to let Fox hoist itself by its own petard: pundits Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly are revealed in all their rabid, foam-mouthed glory, and the anchors spew such biased rubbish one wonders how anyone but a cloth-eared moron could think this was "fair and balanced" reporting. This is an important film. Conservative bias in the media is not confined to the United States: Murdoch owns television, radio and print media in Australia as well. Perhaps the problem is not as severe in this country yet, but it can only be a matter of time. (Just open the Australian or the Herald Sun if you don't believe me.) 'Outfoxed' is more than an expose of one news outlet and its bias: it gives us tools with which to recognise and counter bias in whichever medium we see it.  |
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