Are there people in the U.S. who still believe that Fox News is "fair and balanced"?
I don't really think so, and that's the weak point of this "documentary" with an editorial point of view. While there are occasional references to serious issues -- such as, how can a democracy function when one of its most popular "news" source lies on a regular basis -- what we see reported on this DVD based program is plainly on view to anyone who takes the time to watch TV news.
Listen to Britt Hume on Sunday and you'll see what I mean. This guy has a point of view and makes no attempt to appear as a serious impartial journalist. We don't need an 80 minute program to tell us this.
I stopped watching Fox when we invaded Iraq. I think it was the "news" commentator who looked at the camera and said, "When we return, we'll talk about how the Hollywood celebrities who oppose the war should be punished" who convinced me I was watching propaganda. The fact that there was not the slightest attempt to be calm or objective when Americans were fighting and dying in a foreign land was a huge turn-off to me.
TV news a s a whole sucks, of course. The tidbits on network evening news are carefully scrubbed to please their corporate owners. Since I check in on various web based reports during the day, the dinner hour is basically news-stale. Besides, I hate the barrage of disease- and pill-related commercials designed to appeal to baby boomers like myself who already have one foot in the grave. At least give me the commercials they have on Spike TV!
But seriously, do we need a program like OUTFOXED to tell us that Bill O'Reilly is a liar and a bully? Come on, just watch his show.
The real issue here is that Fox gives a large number of Americans what they want to hear. It's not Rupert's fault, he's just playing the mouthpiece of the conservative GOP because it's good business. Should the political winds ever blow the other way, he'll be the first to try to hire Al Franken as a prime time commentator.
