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Challenging Corporate Media: 'Outfoxed', A Robert Greenwald film
143/Tim Gopsill
Some people seem to think that think Jeremy Paxman or John Humphrys are tough interviewers. But they don't go "Shut up, shut up, shut up!" at people they don't like. That's what Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly does, and you can see it for yourself in the film Outfoxed, now released on DVD in the UK.
The target of this outburst is the somewhat bemused son of a man killed in New York on September 11 2001 who was against the war. After being told he was a traitor to his father's memory and so on, the man ventured to reason with his host, and that's where Bill O'Reilly lost it.
Outfoxed, directed by Robert Greenwald, gives the strong impression that this kind of exchange is routine on Fox News. There is a seamless line between news and comment, with presenters breaking off from reports to deliver mean-minded right-wing homilies.
The intolerance, the flagrancy, the arrogance, the natural assumption of authority - these really are the stuff of fascism. You can almost see the ghost of Dr Goebbels in the control room.
There is nothing like it in the UK, of course. Even Rupert Murdoch could not possibly get British-trained TV journalists to behave like this, and indeed Sky News is no worse and in some ways less restrained than the BBC or ITN.
But then there's nothing like Outfoxed in the UK either. Without a theatrical release it has been outselling Hollywood blockbusters on DVD, promoted by the radical movement. There is nothing in the UK like Michael Moore's films either. Or books with the popularity of those of Greg Palast, Al Franken or Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber. David Miller's Tell Me Lies, containing an equivalent critique of the reporting of the invasion of Iraq, did not even get a review in the liberal press, let alone nationwide promotion and sales.
There is no Moveon.org and no popular radical media organisation like FAIR. There is the CPBF, but we have a long way to go to the stage where we can involve millions in a campaign to stop the media shutting us up.
Last modified: Saturday, December 25, 2004
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Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
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DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
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Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Miscellany
WITHOUT COMMENT
Censored 2005: Peter Phillips and Project Censored (Seven Stories Press) £12.99
Iraqi journalists celebrate release of French colleagues
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IFJ Welcomes Pledge on Gongadze Case
CPBF attacks Thompson's 'Threats to the BBC'
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Campaign, WACC join the wave of protest in support of IndyMedia
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