Outfoxed

Last night I watched "Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" on DVD. It's a frightening documentary about the inner workings of FOX News and Rupert Murdoch's media empire.

Since we've grown up in Kuwait and the Arab world on state-controlled television which functions as a mouthpiece for our governments, I could've just shrugged it off and not been so appalled. But as I've said before, we hold the USA to a much higher standard than what we apply to ourselves, and to see a powerful yet dishonest American news channel controlled by one extreme right-wing AUSTRALIAN megalomaniac, intent on distorting the truth to serve his own goals... well, it gave me the creeps!

The film was full of interviews with former Fox News employees and some current ones who insisted they remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. The film's director even managed to get hold of some truly disturbing internal memos that dictated how certain news events were to be spun in favor the Bush administration. Most shocking example: Playing down the daily killings of American soldiers in Iraq, in order to fool Americans that everything is going smoothly there so as not to hurt Bush in this election year.

Of course FOX News has every right to follow whatever agenda they like, but to present themselves as "fair and balanced" when they're anything but that, is a little hard to swallow. It's a Republican propaganda machine and should just come out and admit it. It's also very depressing that an increasing majority of Americans get their news from Fox, and that it just distorts their already limited knowledge of world affairs.