"Outfoxed" is only the tip of the iceberg 7/12/2004 10:33:17 AM
From CHARLIE REINA: Please consider the following submission to your Letters section. As you may recall, you posted my letter last October about the FNC "Memo" and touched off a round of heated exchanges on the subject of cable news bias. (For the record, I was in no way involved in the making of "Outfoxed," either as an on-or-off-camera interviewee or as a supplier of FNC memos.)
After its formal release this week, there will be a lot more shouting over the Robert Greenwald documentary, "Outfoxed." The film pulls no punches in condemning Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel as little more than a mouthpiece for the Republican Party and the Bush White House in particular. Critics will rightly point out, as some already have, that Greenwald brought a long record of pro-Democrat, anti-Bush bias to the project. But none of them will be able to deny -- at least not honestly -- the film's damning underlying truth: not only is FNC politically biased, but the bias comes directly, and unabashedly, from Fox management.
To those of us who went into television news with respect for honest, objective journalism, this way of doing things is appalling. It mocks the very idea of a free and responsible press. That it seems to have become the new industry standard makes Greenwald's documentary all the more timely and important. The former FNC staffers brave enough to be interviewed for "Outfoxed" recount the kind of journalistic horror stories that are all too common at Fox. Notably, there is Los Angeles-based reporter Jon Du Pre's account of the staff meeting at which his new bureau chief laid down the law: Job One is to serve "headquarters" (a.k.a. Murdoch and his News Chairman, long-time GOP operative Roger Ailes) by reporting the stories they want covered, the way they want them reported. Fox no doubt will dismiss such claims as the rantings of disgruntled ex-employees, but (as I know from personal experience) the network's response, while long on character assassination, will be short on actual denials.
There is also speculation that Fox is warning its cable competitors to downplay their reporting on the film, or else Rupert, Roger and company will have no choice but to retaliate. If this is so, the threat probably will work. From the beginning, the Murdoch-Ailes machine has routinely -- and loutishly -- used its news channel to bash its enemies. For their part, CNN and MSNBC have excelled at cowering before the machine -- especially since FNC overtook them in the ratings and dragged them into the same sewer of dumbed-down, sleazed-up "news."
Now here's the scary part. Having worked there for six years (until April, 2003), I can tell you that the sordid picture of Fox News Channel presented in Greenwald's documentary is, if anything, understated. It's only the tip of the iceberg.