Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism Film Review

                The film Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism (here on referred to just as Outfoxed) by Carolina productions is a Documentary expose film on the Right winged propaganda that is Fox News.  The 2004 film directed by Robert Greenwald uses interviews, clips and narration in order to take us through Fox News past and present and to expose Rupert Murdoch’s use of the news station in order to air right winged extremist propaganda and biased news.  The unrated (UR) documentary features prominent figures such as; Douglas Cheek (Narrator), Walter Cronkite and Roger Ailes (as themselves)  the last two of which were active members of Fox News and came out to speak out against it in later years.  These individuals along with many more who were part of the Fox News history come out to air the dirty laundry of the news station and shed some light on what many can see but very few have experienced the fact that Fox News encourages a culture that is right winged extremist and eliminates any opposition to this within its walls.  This documentary has an extremely controversial subject matter and does a great job of exposing Murdoch’s control over Fox News as well as using interviews as supporting material.  However as a film Outfoxed is edited with fast cuts and so becomes hard to follow at points.  Because of this I give the film a 7.5/10 rating, it is definitely a great documentary but not easy to follow.

                Outfoxed is a documentary exposé that analysis how Fox News Channel (FNC), one of many news stations owned by Rupert Murdoch, has a Right winged slant in their reporting.  The film compares FNC’s famous trademark slogan “Fair and Balanced” with their actual reporting of the news both by looking at what reaches the air as well as their inner office politics.  Through interviews of personnel that no longer works in Fox News, such as journalist Walter Cronkite, along with office memos that they provided Outfoxed makes a strong case for the fact that FNC is not “fair and balanced” and instead pushes a right winged agenda through selective news coverage and anti-democratic views.  The film also takes a closer view at the direct and indirect influence that Rupert Murdoch imposes on FNC in order to create this right winged slant in the channel through means of executives and even direct phone calls to producers telling them what they should air.  Outfoxed also takes a crack at Bill O’Riley one of fox’s most famous talk show hosts and place his abrasive interviewing style under a magnifying glass to give a direct example of the biased in FNC. 

                As a documentary Outfoxed does a great job of exposing Fox News as biased and not “Fair and Balanced” through the use of interviews (both of expert witnesses and retired fox employees), documents and clips.  The topic is well researched and the people who appear in the film are credible sources of information either because of their educational background or because of their work experience within the Fox Network.  The claims of the individuals that are interviewed are also well supported with clips of from actual Fox broadcastings as well as internal memos which work together to form a picture of the different subjects (such as Jeremy Glick’s interview with Bill O’Riley).  The editing of the sequences that connect these interviews and clips together is somewhat fast paced at points however, which makes the film a bit hard to follow.  The film being a documentary the cinematography is not of much note with most of the shots being medium shots of the individuals being interviewed.  The only point of note with cinematography in this film is the different shots of phone or recordings when playing audio (with altered voices) of anonymous individuals.  Some may say that the use of these anonymous contributors take away from the validity of the film but I believe that it helps shine a light on the control that fox has on its staff even after they are no longer under contract.  Some of the graphics in the film are not as impressive as they could have been for a 2004 film but with a budget of only $200,000 this is not a big problem and takes very little away from the film. 

                The purpose of making this film was clearly to expose the biased reporting that is done by Fox News and to show how Rupert Murdoch uses his money and influence to control public opinion through media rather than reporting fact.  The director of Outfoxed definitely accomplishes this in great lengths by showing his audience the inner workings of the Fox Network and the right winged culture that is not only present in fox but also very actively enforced.  The filmmaker made this film during a time when the validity of Fox News was (and continues to be) questioned by a vast majority of the public.  The skewed views of fox have always been a subject of debate and public question but until this film a solid concrete case for it had never been presented.  Outfoxed is among the first pieces of media that came out with solid facts against the major news channel and allowed viewers to make a decision.  The film sets up a sort of timeline of the history and policies of FNC in order to take the viewer through a structured journey providing scenario after scenario where Fox has been guilty of intentionally providing unbalanced coverage.  This film was clearly a way to give media audiences everywhere a view on how FNC really works and allow them to make up their own minds from there whether this is a media source they really want to trust to deliver their daily news. 

                Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism is one of the last great exposé documentaries of its time.  It puts a face not only on the corruption of the media market but also on the use of Fox News Channel as a way to manipulate the masses through misinformation.  The film provides great solid facts and uses; interviews, statistics, clips and documents to drive its point.  The film is solid in its content however lacks in ways of editing and graphics which does not reduce its validity but makes it slightly less appealing to  the general public.  As an exposé documentary Outfoxed is a great success but as a film it lacks in various areas, because of this I give this film a 7.5/10 rating but highly encourage any educated person to watch it and decide for themselves whether Fox News is in fact “Fair and Balanced”.