The Quadrangle

Issue date: 11/3/04 Section: Arts & Entertainment

In 1996, one of the most biased and partisan news channels to ever grace American media emerged, the Fox News Channel. Fox News has since caused a media frenzy as news programs are following suit and abandoning traditional journalism. The media is becoming the "nervous system of American politics" instead of being an objective medium that connects the American public with Capitol Hill. Robert Greenwald's Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism finally outwardly presents these unethical issues to the unassuming American majority in a well-crafted documentary that will tug at your past perceptions.

Rupert Murdoch, perhaps one the most vocally adamant republicans, is the owner of dozens and dozens of media outlets, and in 1996 he added Fox News to his shelf of trophies. Murdoch's media monopoly reaches a staggering three-fourths of the global population. Thus, a majority of the world is using Murdoch's newspapers and programs to receive current global events. Outfoxed, however, obviously dismayed by these astronomical numbers, successfully questions and challenges Fox News' credibility and ethics in the realm of journalism. The audience is left with a critical yet unbiased documentary.

Fox News' tagline is ironically "Fair and Balanced. We Report. You Decide." Outfoxed brings Fox News to its knees proving again and again the fallacious nature of this deceiving trademark. Director, Robert Greenwald presses throughout the entire film that Fox News' ultra-conservative viewpoints taint all of its news programs. One program Greenwald specifically targets is "The O'Rielly Factor" with Bill O'Rielly. Greenwald uses this far right wing talk show to demonstrate how subtly and successfully Fox News is able to blur the line between news and opinion until the audience cannot recognize concrete fact from commentary,

Outfoxed also presents a more indirect theme. It raises the question that if corporations and propaganda are what influences and is critical to news channels and other media outlets, is there such thing as liberal media? It seems as if Outfoxed is aiming to convey that the liberal media is an idealistic myth, an illusion that no longer exists. It is a rather cynical thesis, but unfortunately proves true in many cases.

Outfoxed is arguably one of the most thought provoking documentaries of the year. It's winning combination of panelists, media experts, and footage provides its audiences with a solid and convincing portrayal of journalism at its worst. It does what many have failed to publicly voice either out of fright or ignorance. Many Americans see the media as completely honest and objective; they fail to see the horrifying and deceiving propaganda that occurs. Greenwald argues this "consumer fraud" is the genius of American media, and without documentaries such as this, the American public would never take off their rose -colored glasses and see the obscene biases that occur in the newsroom.

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