Outfoxing Outfoxed
I am no fan of FOX News. That said, I am also no fan of bias in the media in general, be it liberal or conservative. It tremendously annoys me to have the news media, which is supposed to tell me what is going on in the world, also try to surreptisiouly persuade me to agree with one particular world view or another. I don't mind it at all if someone is openly trying to express an opinion, argument or point of view, but when someone masquerades under the false guise of neutrality only to pursue some hidden agenda... Well, it rather upsets me, to say the least. Finally, and more specifically, it disgusts me when documentaries such as Outfoxed pretend to be revealing truth but are in reality using all sorts of misleading tricks to deceive the public. For this reason, I would like to recommend a column that appeared today in The Daily Pennsylvanian, which was written by Michelle Dubert, a summer intern at FOX who explains why Outfoxed was not exactly fair to the network. The following is a brief excerpt from her column:All jests aside, Outfoxed has some seriously misleading material. Conveniently absent from many cut-and-paste scenes is the benefit of attributions and context. Consider the scene where FOX News' chief political correspondent, Carl Cameron, says to the camera, "If you want to destroy jobs in this country, you raise taxes." That's quite a bomb to hurl. However, Cameron -- who was praised by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) for his objectivity in reporting -- was quoting Secretary of Commerce Don Evans.
How about the part where one of the anchors refers to former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke's book as "an appalling act of profiteering." Actually, that was Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). You wouldn't have known that just from watching the movie -- but Greenwald knew all along.
posted by ertandberni @ 10:03 PM
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