Really Surprised!

I'll tell you why so serious

Awesome Movie

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This documentary highlights everything that's bad about Fox News. It is scary to watch how biased a news channel can be - especially when their own slogan used to be "Fair and Balanced". You want to laugh out loud in disgust an disbelief that Fox News in fact promotes themselves as balanced - when they are everything but! They are definitely doing everything WRONG when it comes to journalistic standards - and serving their very well thought messages to the people as "news". Fox News is a propaganda machine for very conservative, republican values - and at least they should own up to it and declare what they are - instead of acting like they are fair and balanced. It is a disgrace for journalism that a news channel like Fox News exists. This documentary is very powerful, and it is so important that people realize how biased Fox News is. I really loved the part where the hosts are all saying "some people say" - instead of citing actual sources. It is so ridiculous! I love that this documentary is showing these awful methods.

The film deserves a 1 for awful just because of the amateurish use of propaganda. That is to say, other producers are much better at crafting propaganda to convince the gullible without being quite so obvious.The main thing wrong here, aside from the typical methods of taking quotes out of context, exaggeration and failing to compare any supposed wrongs committed by Fox News to other news networks, is the omission of any opposing voice whatsoever.If you are going to deceive viewers effectively, much like ABC, NBC and CBS do every day of the year on their morning and evening news programs, the secret to winning over people at least half-aware is to allow somebody to disagree with the main theme. The smart producers then or beforehand destroy the credibility of that voice. Yet by allowing it on-screen, many in the audience are convinced that it must indeed be a fair treatment and therefore a credible work.Still, liberal audiences being who they are, deeply suffering from years of misinformation, taught as they have been to despise and distrust Fox News and talk radio (the only places to get any truth in this age of deceit), the documentary worked for millions of them. One could hear them walking around as if this one piece or the follow-up book finally provided the Holy Grail, the element ready to silence those rascally conservatives robotically following Fox and Rush.Fox News and talk radio (you could add in Christian radio here also) must be taken down because they represent the lone voices against the worldview of liberalism. Tyrants have always sought to silence opposition. In an age of ostensible freedom of speech, however, the unexpected storm of truth emanating from conservative outlets had to be permitted. Well, Democrats are trying vigorously to get talk radio shut down by re-introducing the "Fairness Doctrine." But with Fox, their reaction has been to teach America that no one should trust those people over there on that cable channel.So here's a summary of how we got here. The liberals owned all media for years and years. From that perch, they limited conservatives to one-fourth of the presence on any show (like "This Week with David Brinkley," like "The View" even today), though generally no presence at all, like the evening news and morning programs.President Reagan shot down the Fairness Doctrine. That opened the door for the voices that ordinary patriots actually wanted to hear, those who had resisted the teaching being put out. Limbaugh rocketed to popularity. The media tried ignoring him at first, as they do most opponents. Failing the first measure, they launched into attack mode. Pat Buchanan came in for the same treatment. Destroy this man before he actually wins the nomination. Along came Fox News. All of the dogs were released. This documentary is one of the (attack) dogs.In the opening segment, viewers are supposed to be shocked and frightened upon learning how many media operations are owned by Rupert Murdoch (who owns Fox News). I have personally heard the gasps from teenagers being fed this propaganda in college. What is left out (sadly, even by professors much of the time) is that all of the large media companies are parts of much larger conglomerates. They must acquire more in order to consolidate and compete. CBS is owned by Viacom, which also owns MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1, Paramount Pictures, Infinity Broadcasting, UPN, TNN, CMT, Showtime, Blockbuster, and Simon & Schuster (the book publisher). Do we see documentaries being produced and shown in universities frightening students about Viacom? If knowing how 60 Minutes (a CBS program) went after Bush for eight straight years while laying off most Democrats, how CBS did likewise (think of how Dan Rather covered up the Gary Condit episode), it is probable that fair minded observers would grow plenty frightened of Viacom. But what they get are frightful accounts of Fox News.Why I gave "Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" a 3 is due to its level of fairly decent cinematic techniques (transitions, graphics, camera angles and voice-overs), hardly the best out there, yet reaching into the bottom tier of professional quality. If wanting to view another huge propaganda film, though one with amazing production quality, try Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 or Al Gore's almost beautiful (though completely untruthful) An Inconvenient Truth.By the way, I am currently reviewing Outfoxed for a research paper on propaganda in a college documentary class.

Finally it's been made. Actually it was made several years ago, but thank God it was. For those who expect more from "news" stations, who believe that all of them, whether they be MSNBC or CNN or yes, Fox News, can and should do so much more to offer viewers unbiased news coverage and balanced commentary, this film is sure to incite some anger. The film makes one main point: it's not that Fox isn't good at being nonpartisan; it simply doesn't want to try. If it did its ratings would plummet and the film explains just why.The documentary is about as low budget as they come. No great special effects or artistic twists, but it succeeds at expressing its point in a concise manner and by using plenty of information from former Fox employees and excerpts of newscasts.If you believe Fox News is the only true fair and balanced news network, you'll probably turn the film off after a matter of minutes. That's what happened when I showed the film to my very conservative father. But otherwise, you'll probably find the film to be both bold and informative, one that confirms what many have long expected to be true.

>Outfoxed< shows how FoX News Channel has developed a format intended more to manipulate the thoughts of viewers than to inform. FoX, which claims to be "Fair and Balanced" is the antithesis of fairness and balance, as the documentary shows.The creators of >Outfoxed< give credit to FoX News for slick innovations in television journalism, including the establishment of a corporate identity (one could never confuse FoX News with some other form of TV journalism), musical motifs that set the tone, and such a device as the "FoX News Alert" that draws attention to a breaking story. But they also expose the manipulativeness of FoX News for misusing the News Alert for titillating items.The documentary shows how those who go along with FoX News' editorial opinions get the royal treatment, yet those who run afoul of it get cut down. Bill O'Reilly is shown telling his interviewees to "Shut up!" when they go 'too far' in contradicting him and, in one case, the use of odd camera angles to make someone who disagrees with him (a son of a 9/11 victim refusing to go along with the aggressive foreign policy of the Bush Administration) look like a terrorist, bum, or monster. It also shows how FoX debased reporting at formerly-independent TV stations such as WTTG (Channel 5 in Washington DC) as Murdoch took them over.The great fault of FoX News is that although it consumes much time of a viewer it offers little news -- but much scripted analysis intended more to convince than to inform. >Outfoxed< gets FoX... right.