Outfoxed

Why I am torturing myself going to see all of the documentaries this summer that make me furious at the right wing of our country, I have no idea. Outfoxed sent me reeling. The movie basically looks at how Fox is a propaganda network for the GOP. Rupert Murdoch, who is a serious conservative, has used his power (considering he owns the majority of newspapers, networks, radio etc. in the world) to promote the right wing agenda.

His network spends the entire day staying on GOP message. By the time the day is over, you have no idea where the information came from – true or false – but somehow it is the gospel. There is nothing like true “fair and balanced” journalism. It is purely one sided propaganda. Although the tagline for the Fox network is “fair and balanced”.

There were interviews with a variety of non-profit organizations that monitor this type of stuff. So, what really infuriated me is how did our government let this happen? What type of democracy are we? I would hope that if Kerry (please become our President) becomes elected that there will be changes made in the Media. The Media is controlling our country, our thoughts and our views. The fast food industry spends billions of dollars promoting their fat producing unhealthy food. The fruit and vegetable industry spends almost nothing. Fox network spends all day promoting a GOP agenda. There are only a few large media outlets that have made our country more interested in the love story between Ben and Jennifer than health care. It is pathetic.

So, what do we do? I do not trust the government that we have in place now. Do you contact the FCC? I don’t know the answer.

I hope that bloggers are in some way the beginnings of change in the media sector. You can find your own pundits. You can find different pundits that have opposing views and make your own decisions. Admittingly I read the NYTimes cover to cover everyday. It this a fair and balanced newspaper or is it a newspaper that is leaning towards the left? I like it but I am left. What do we do as citizens to stop where we are now and continue down a different path. Is it that money holds the ultimate power with the government and the media? Yikes. I could go on forever but this movie is very disturbing and you have to ask why and how did we get to this? How could we leave the next generation a false democracy? What should we do?

Comments (Archived):

  1. Jackson

    We can stop watching TV. We can vote. We can choose where we spend our money. What strikes me is that Rupert got his network off the ground with programming like “The Simpsons” and “The Tracy Ullman Show” which have a decidedly leftist slant. Crazy.

  2. Chris Holland

    yeah I rarely ever watch TV. I read factual news online that come over the various newswires, that report “facts”, and try to filter out the occasional slants. Usually AP newswire stuff.

    But yeah, I’m hoping for the Internet to play a key role in democracy, especially thru blogs. With a nicely padded bookmark list of thought-provoking blogs combined with carefully crafted subscriptions to pubsub.com, you can feel the pulse of what’s happening. Whenever mainstream media drops the ball, the blogosphere picks it right up. We just need more people to tune-in to it.

    I thought for a while I was alone in my political views in a world where people yearn for polarized political slants, until I stumbled upon Jeff Jarvis’ blog from Fred’s blog. And that gives me hope.

  3. Bernard Moon

    “False democracy?” Please do not be blind and ignorant towards the fact that the majority of media outlets lean left, and before Fox developed into a major outlet there was no voice for the right. Also it is simply a matter of choice for people to watch Fox, CNN, or other news channels. There is no right-wing conspiracy making people watch Fox and allowing it to becoming the leader in the ratings.

    Maybe you should ask people outside of your world why they watch Fox? Ask such questions first before making such assumptions about the inner workings behind the show. One close liberal friend of my admits he watches The O’Reilly because even though he doesn’t like the guy at least he criticizes everyone… left, right, whomever. This is one quality that liberal media outlets rarely do and should learn to compete with Fox… watching CNN’s Judy Woodruff soft-pedel questions for liberal guests make me turn the channel. There is more to the world than the NY Times, Soho, and Central Park.

  4. Jenny Lawton

    I loved this DVD — and my kids did, too. We were all outraged by the amazing bias and outright misrepresentation of opinion for news.

    I watch one TV show — ER. I don’t watch the news or anything else. I don’t think I miss that much — I read the NYT and The Greenwich Time, daily.

    I think a lot of news reporting has a tilt — but I think that FOX takes it WAAAAY over the top.

    And what about that O’Reilly guy just LYING outright about saying SHUTUP! What a horrible example to set for just about anyone.

    No wonder we have road rage if this is what people are doing with their free time — made me tense just to watch clips of that man.

  5. sm

    interesting that you do not have anxiety over the fact that CNN was founded by one of the great and powerful lefties of all time, Ted Turner, and continues to essentially espouse Turner’s politics to this day? Turner is (or was) every bit as rich and powerful and opinionated as Murdoch, maybe more so, in his day. so why is that OK? because Turner’s politics and your politics overlap so much? why are lefties so narcissistic? the hypocrisy of the left is so intense these days, its no wonder the average american tunes in to Fox — we’re all so exhausted being lectured to by the self-aggrandizing, holier-than-thou left.