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Outfoxed (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 57
Fresh: 49
Rotten:8
Average Rating: 6.9/10
Consensus: Neither fair nor balanced itself, Outfoxed offers an often entertaining indictment of the Fox News Channel.
Theatrical Release:Jul 16, 2004 Limited
Box Office: $237,277
Synopsis: In this scathing documentary from Robert Greenwald, the Fox News Channel comes under fire. First the film illustrates the way that its owner, Rupert Murdoch, has dominated the media, buying up TV... In this scathing documentary from Robert Greenwald, the Fox News Channel comes under fire. First the film illustrates the way that its owner, Rupert Murdoch, has dominated the media, buying up TV stations, cable channels, and newspapers worldwide. Next, Fox's reporting tactics are looked at with a fine-tooth comb, revealing a clear pattern of nonobjective journalism. On talk shows and in other debate forums, hosts push conservative points of view. Former employees give anonymous interviews confessing that they were instructed to put a right-wing slant on their work. But the dominant message of the film concerns the mantra of "fair and balanced," which Fox uses to promote itself. By examining the way that Fox collects and reports news, this film shows that it is simply not fair and balanced. For instance, on Bill O'Reilly's talk show, he repeatedly tells guests to shut up rather than allowing them to disagree with his agenda. Layering of quick clips--so that we hear O'Reilly tell guests over and over to "shut up, shut up, shut up,"--is one of the most amusing tactics used in the film. But the reality is that by refusing to allow certain opinions to be expressed, and by tainting information to promote a conservative plan, Fox's viewers are being deprived of the truth. These issues are put into context through informative analytical commentary from media professionals like David Brock (author of THE REPUBLICAN NOISE MACHINE: RIGHT WING MEDIA AND HOW IT CORRUPTS DEMOCRACY), Jeff Chester (of the Center for Digital Democracy), Jeff Cohen (founder of FAIR, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), Al Franken (a host on Air America Radio), Robert McChesney (host of the radio program Media Matters), and Chellie Pingree (president of Common Cause). [More]
Starring: Walter Cronkite, Jeffrey Cohen, Bob McChesney, Chellie Pingree
Starring: Walter Cronkite, Jeffrey Cohen, Bob McChesney, Chellie Pingree, Jeff Chester, David Brock, Bill O'Reilly, Al Franken
Director: Robert Greenwald
Director: Robert Greenwald
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Reviews for Outfoxed
[A] home-run smackdown of the Australian mogul who dominates the American media scene...
This basic dichotomy of honest, urgent intentions and desultory, cheapskate expression marks OutFoxed from a fairly early moment and never really changes.
The most scrupulous, most focused, most thorough, and arguably most important of 2004's wave of activist documentaries.
Not about anything except the lead-balloon revelation that Fox feeds rage and fuels disinformation with questionable journalistic tactics.
This is a big story, but there's not much coverage of it, except in this movie.
Greenwald has fashioned a fine attack dog, and he's sicced it on a deserving subject.
Fox News eventually comes off as a circle of buffoons yapping catch phrases. The movie hammers its points and, like a Bush campaign stop, there’s no room for dissent.
Powerful stuff, and deserves to be seen -- by both sides of the political spectrum.
The kind of broader analysis that makes "Outfoxed" worthwhile viewing even for those who don't have Air America as one of their preset stations.
Outfoxed is a must-see for any Fox News aficionado interested in understanding what occurs behind the curtain.
Taken for what it is, Outfoxed is still worth watching, especially for the politically active.
Pure partisan warfare of the liberal stripe, to be sure, but that doesn't make it any less disturbing when discussing such a major shaper of public opinion as Fox, whose motto, judging from this film, more accurately should be 'You retort, we deride.'
An eye-opening look inside television news. The big lesson seems to be - don't believe everything you see on television (and probably only half of what you see at the movies).
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