We went to Jo's yesterday evening to check out the new documentary Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism at one of several MoveOn.org/Common Cause house parties in Austin. After noticing that there were nearly 200 people RSVPed on the MoveOn Web site, we decided to head over to the party early and found great seats. I'm glad we did - I think there had to be around 500 people there by the time the film was over - the response was incredible.
I liked Outfoxed. For folks who are familiar with Rupert Murcdoch and Roger Ailes' antics, a lot of film covers familiar topics but was nonetheless a good refresher for those of us who can't stomach Fox News long enough to keep an eye on what they're up to. Bill O'Reilly comes across as a hateful, lying, dangerous nutcase as usual. My only criticism of the documentary would be that the filmmakers sometimes resorted to sound bite journalism - I felt like a few of the interviews were cut off before the audience really got into the details. This was relatively rare. Overall it was a well done film.
Lots of other folks are blogging about Outfoxed today. Adina Levin notes that there may be some interesting lessons bloggers can take away from the film:
What really struck me, watching the debased state of corporate media, was the role that we can play. It's not just about begging the mass media to do a better job (in conflict with their mission to make a profit by selling violence and sex). It's about being the media. Local news is understaffed and insubstantial. If a blogger goes to a meeting and writes about what happened, we can cover the story.Tim Trentham notes that Fox still has the wildly irresponsible claim that Iraq is safer than California posted on their Web site.
If anyone else has the same questions I did about how the Outfoxed producers got away with using so much Fox News footage, Lawrence Lessig has an interesting article on fair use.
Posted by sarah at July 19, 2004 10:57 AM | TrackBack