Documentary Aims to Show Bias on Fox News

[Johnny Stew]

Documentary Aims to Show Bias on Fox News
Mon Jul 12, 7:49 PM ET
By FRAZIER MOORE, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK - A new documentary backed by liberal political groups aims to document that the Fox News Channel is anything but "fair and balanced," despite the cable-news network's motto.

The film, "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism," draws on clips compiled during weeks of round-the-clock taping of the network to demonstrate what the filmmakers believe is a pattern of right-wing bias and support for the Republican agenda.

"What we found is not that Fox is a conservative network, but that it's a network that follows the party line of the Bush administration," said "Outfoxed" filmmaker Robert Greenwald, a Hollywood producer-director whose credits include the 2003 documentary "Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War" and such TV films as "The Crooked E: The Unshredded Truth about Enron" and "Blonde," a biopic of Marilyn Monroe.

Greenwald said he decided to make the film after hearing numerous journalists refer to the "Foxification" of the news. That approach, he says, has served the 8-year-old Fox News Channel well, and "put pressure on many of the other networks to move in the same direction: cheap news, ranting and raving, pseudo-patriotism."

Greenwald's 75-minute film includes complaints from several Fox News staffers about the workplace climate at the outlet of the global Murdoch media empire. They say their bosses promote a conservative slant.

"We weren't necessarily, as it was told to us, a newsgathering organization so much as we were a proponent of a point of view," says Jon Du Pre, a former Fox News correspondent.

The film also quotes internal memos from a top network executive that seem to call for pro-Bush coverage.

"Ribbons or medals? Which did John Kerry throw away after he returned from Vietnam?" wrote senior vice president for news John Moody in an April memo to the staff. "His perceived disrespect for the military could be more damaging to the (Democratic presidential) candidate than questions about his actions in uniform."

In a statement Monday, the network dismissed the whistleblowers as "former low-level Fox employees" who are "hardly worth addressing." It challenged other media organizations to make public their own employee memos, whereupon "Fox News Channel will publish 100 percent of our editorial directions and memos, and let the public decide who is fair."

The film also draws on a study commissioned by Fairness & Accuracy in Media, a national media watchdog group. The study found conservatives accounted for nearly three-fourths of ideological guests on the network's marquee news program, "Special Report with Brit Hume," between June and December 2003, and that Republicans outnumbered Democrats five to one.

"Outfoxed" was compiled during the past seven months in association with liberal political organizations Center for American Progress and MoveOn.Org, as well as the citizens' lobbying group Common Cause.

Budgeted at $300,000, the "guerrilla" documentary will premiere Tuesday at the New School University in Manhattan, then initially be distributed through private "house party" screenings and DVD sales.

At a news conference to introduce the film Monday, Greenwald called Fox News Channel "an opinion station, not a news station."

When former White House terrorism coordinator Richard Clarke testified before the 9-11 commission, he apologized to the American people for the government's failure to protect them.

The film displays a flurry of Fox pundits blasting Clarke, often in similar terms. "It was almost like Fox News was working off of the playbook coming out of the White House, that he had to be torn down," FAIR co-founder Jeff Cohen says in the film.

Fox host Bill O'Reilly is seen on his show insisting he has told a guest to shut up "only once in six years," after which he is seen in clips telling one person after another with whom he disagrees to "shut up."

The documentary also includes a rapid-fire succession of clips of more than a dozen Fox hosts using the phrase "some people say" — which the filmmakers say is a way to insinuate opinion disguised as reporting into on-air discussions.

"There's no smoking gun," Greenwald admitted in explaining what his film set out to reveal — "just a pattern."

[Merf]

No way! Faux News-- not fair and balanced?

Well, butter my biscuits!

My father watches Faux News for ammo when he goes into ultra-right wing chat rooms to troll! That's my Dad!

[dissention]

Faux News is biased? Get out!

Shepherd Smith is incredibly gay, but the suits won't let him come out for fear of a backlash from their conservative audience. He's been spotted in many gay bars in New York.

[estranged4life]

Originally Posted by dissention

Shepherd Smith is incredibly gay, but the suits won't let him come out for fear of a backlash from their conservative audience. He's been spotted in many gay bars in New York.

any news-head that can use "J-lo" and the words "An act only associated with oral sex" in the same sentence during prime-time has my blessings

"J-Lo went back to her neighborhood today in NY to start shooting a new music video. Those in her old stomping grounds were surprised to see J-Lo coming back, Thinking she was pulling a "b--- job", I mean "snow job"...Oh God, I cannot believe what I just said.... "

Sad, but hilariously true

Btw, The liberal journalists can torched Faux News all they want...Just as long as they leave my sexy eye-candy Rita Crosby alone

[dissention]

I ordered my copy last night, it should be here in a few days. Very cheap, too. $10 for the DVD.

And Brian - have you seen Cosby's "reports" on Gitmo? Ugh, don't make me hurl.

[estranged4life]

Originally Posted by dissention

I ordered my copy last night, it should be here in a few days. Very cheap, too. $10 for the DVD.

And Brian - have you seen Cosby's "reports" on Gitmo? Ugh, don't make me hurl.

attention to what she is reporting about, Don't care actually...I just want her to jump up on the desk and do a "bump & grind"

Brian j.

[DeeGeMe]

Here's a prime example of how Fox skews the news to fit their own purposes (like we didn't already know this). Cablenewser is reporting a story where Brian Wilson [in for Brit Hume] referenced a new PEJ study on media coverage. The last four months of coverage has, been, Wilson said, "substantially more focused on, and mostly negative toward, President Bush. The study shows that 56 percent of media coverage has described President Bush as either arrogant or lacking credibility. By contrast, John Kerry has been described negatively nearly half as much."

Not wanting to take Fox's word on anything, I tracked down the report at: http://journalism.org/resources/rese...004/character/

Here's a direct quote from the study:

"Kerry's candidacy, on the other hand, has largely been absent in the news so far, accounting for just 28% of the themes overall. When the press did choose to include Kerry in stories that talked about the presidential election, the message was most often negative, just as it was for Bush. Statements about Kerry's tendency to change his mind on issues made up 12% of all themes. Similarly, those presenting him as very liberal made up 11%."

And here is an overall summary from the report:

"Positive and Negative Themes By Candidate (Excluding refuting themes)
Tone of Themes Percent"

Bush Negative 56.3%
Bush Positive 16.0

Kerry Negative 23.3
Kerry Positive 4.4

Total 100%

By my calculations, that would mean that Bush received four times more positivecoverage than Kerry did--something which, Faux, of course, failed to mention in their on-going attacks on the "liberal media."

[Jason T.]

Originally Posted by Lux

Isn't it like making a documentary that attempts to prove the Nazis were fascist?

Nazis/fascists -- Fox News/Conservatives...

Hell, that's exactly what they're doing. In fact, they could switch around any of those words and they would still apply...

[DeeGeMe]

I just love the "argument" that Fox has put up against this documentary--that it can't be trusted because it's funded by MoveOn.org and George Soros. Soros, they claim is a leftist, radical billionaire! And this would be different from the financial support Faux receives from right-wingnut, conservative owner Rupert Murdoch, somehow?

[dissention]

Hey--

MoveOn.org is sponsoring screenings at around 3,000 homes across the US. If you go to their website and puch in your zip code, you can see if there is a screening in your area.

[amber]

Originally Posted by Lux

Murdoch, Australia's biggest embarassment, aside from Rick Springfield.

You are totally besmirching Rick Springfield's good name here...
Amber

[Johnny Stew]

Originally Posted by Lux

Murdoch, Australia's biggest embarassment, aside from Rick Springfield.

Originally Posted by amber

You are totally besmirching Rick Springfield's good name here...

Yeah, seriously.
Poor Rick doesn't deserve being called an embarrassment to the degree of Rupert Murdoch.

Hell, even Jocko doesn't deserve that! Oy!

[Johnny Stew]

Originally Posted by Lux

Oh you mean Jacko? That is disturbing! I'd forgotten about him, or atleast tried to supress the memory. Now foreigners just come out and remind us. I used to be scared of him when I was little. I think I still am a bit.

Oops! Yep, that's the guy I mean.
It must have been his accent (ie: the way he pronounced his name) that caused me to remember his name as being "Jocko."

He annoyed the snot out of me, as I recall. I much preferred Yahoo Serious!