Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism

The most scrupulous, most focused, and most thorough of 2004's wave of activist documentaries, Outfoxed exposes in detail the relentless partisanship and propaganda at Rupert Murdoch's Fox News by using the network's own program footage (and former employees) to corroborate its every assertion. Director Robert Greenwald introduces internal memos instructing anchors on how to put a pro-Bush spin on each day's events and provides interviews with reporters and newsroom managers who quit rather than compromise their journalistic integrity--some of whom clearly fear retaliation. And that's just in the first six minutes. Outfoxed is a far more unimpeachable documentary than Fahrenheit 9/11, the Karl Rove exposé Bush's Brain and even Greenwald's own Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War because it lacks anything that could be dismissed as supposition or hyperbole. The director mostly lets Fox's own on-air personalities prove themselves insolent and biased beyond a reasonable doubt in clip (anchors parroting White House talking points) after clip (repeated fear-mongering phraseology) after clip (talk show guests constantly interrupted and told to "shut up"). Greenwald captures all of this yellow journalism with evident frustration, but the film does not have a palpable leftist slant. Outfoxed simply makes it clear as a bell how Fox viewers have become--according to a highly respected University of Maryland study--the most misinformed audience in the nation. The DVD includes a 30-minute "making-of" featurette that does the film a huge disservice by over-praising the partisan MoveOn.org and introducing the stereotypically lefty volunteers who worked on the film. No matter: Outfoxed is outstanding all by itself. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Aud: C, P. (R. Blackwelder)