Outfoxed!

Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism

The Background Info: Outfoxed is a risky 2004 documentary film directed by Robert Greenwald.

The Scoop: Media Empire, Fox News Channel is being used to promote right-wing views and is being said that "Fox News Channel is a 24/7 commercial for the conservatives and the Republican Party." Fox is owned by Rupert Murdoch who feels that Fox is “fair” and denies these claims even though there is substantial evidence proving the contrary.

Inspiration: Greenwald created this film to “Serve as a catalyst to break the silence about Fox News," http://www.alternet.org/story/19199/

Assertions: Here are some strong points made in the film:

- It criticizes Fox News' coverage during the lead-up to, and the aftermath of, the 2003 invasion of Iraq
- It portrays Fox News management, including Murdoch and president Roger Ailes, both conservatives, as controlling the network's content, and further portrays editorial control from Murdoch on down as ensuring which stories and issues are covered and that the coverage is from a strongly conservative perspective.
- It states that it picks strong confident conservatives and weak-looking complacent liberals to appear on it.

For more information visit: Wikipedia

Why: Of course what Fox is doing is not right, but what makes it wrong according to the standards of journalism? The news is responsible for providing information to viewers. These are people who want to learn and want the facts. If the facts are only from one side than how are citizens suppose to make informed decisions if we are not getting all of the information. If they are only giving the conservatives side of the story then the reporter has responsibility to state that. One of the most important canons to journalism is truth and accuracy. Media conglomerates have so much power and it is being abused when only one side of the story is being heard.

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