AlterNet: "OutFoxed": How Rupert Murdoch Is Destroying American Journalism

AlterNet: "OutFoxed": How Rupert Murdoch Is Destroying American Journalism: "As 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' Michael Moore's powerful indictment of the Bush Administration, is influencing millions of Americans in the heartland, 'Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism,' a devastating new documentary that exposes Bush's biggest cheerleader opens this week in New York and San Francisco and will be featured in thousands of house parties across the country, sponsored by MoveOn.org on Sunday, July 18th.
'Outfoxed' demonstrates in painful detail how one media empire, making full use of the public airwaves, can reject any semblance of fairness or perspective, and serve as the mouthpiece of right-wing conservatives, fully relishing its role. Media critic Jeffrey Chester describes the Fox News operation most succinctly in the film: 'Fox News Channel is a 24/7 commercial for the conservatives and the Republican Party.'

"Outfoxed" demonstrates how the message of the day gets repeated hundreds of times by the anchors – virtually by rote – which must be an affront to all who want to make up their own minds about current affairs. And Greenwald proves pretty clearly that critical thinking is not what Fox News is about.

The documentary portrays Fox News' top host Sean Hannity as a bully, and its biggest star, Bill O'Reilly, a consistently documented liar with an anger problem. In one of the most powerful moments in the film, Jeremy Glick, a son of a worker killed in the World Trade Center disaster, appears as a guest on O'Reilly's show and takes him on, refusing to buckle in to his berating. O'Reilly invites "liberals" on to his show to turn them into punching bags, but in this case, when the plan goes astray, he loses it, threatening Glick with outlandish accusations, and then pulling the plug on his microphone."



By Don Hazen
AlterNet