Shehata 1 Ahmed Shehata a4 ie UWRT 1102 ee Instructor: Fran Voltz aes Sept 15, 2014 ue Journal Entry#2: Outfoxed 4 a The movie Hbutfoxed\was clearly bias against Fox News and its owner. It depicted bx ates as a conservative far right leaning organization, with its own political agenda This was accomplished through interviews with Keivious disgruntle employees. ‘The movie purposely portrays the slanted techniques used by fox Mas ‘These techniques include cutting people off, saying “some people say” and “shut up” as demonstrated by their star reporter Bill O'Reilly. The movie showed clips of reporters using these techniques as examples of ways of being vague and not specific. These techniques can also be used to insert political opinion. ry Other techniques widely used by fox pws reporters in interviewers was ealmly say “we have to cut you off” and “thank you for your time”. Bill O’Reilly uses these techniques and is uv often caught saying “shut up” on fx dws and on his show the O”Reilly Factor. Why does fx hws do this on air? Is it because they are worried what people are going to say. Are they trying i (>) influence the audience or are they trying to show that there many sides to a stofy, Why do they care? Fox is supposed to be reporting the news, it should be unbiased and straight forward, It * should not include their opinion or agendas. pdt? Outfoxed does an excellent job of diagnosing why people talk so much about the Fox ‘News network. For while Fox has some of the highest ratings of any of the news networks, it is also commonly criticized for its not so "fair and balanced” programming. It is chronicled in thisShehata 2 film how Fox succeeds in bringing in the viewers the same way that best-selling polemics and political talk radio as, Hegel up to their audience heroes and villains. This method is so effective because the major issues facing this country and the world are generally very complicated, and require a reasonable amount of background information in order to make a sober judgments. However, most people have neither the time, nor the inclination for anything «like that. Most do not follow polities to lear, to be challenged, or to take action, they simply want to feed their outrage. If their anger about the world around them can be explained away by blaming the people they already have ideological differences with, well that's just awesome. So, they often take refuuge in the consistent, simplified, outrage-inducing commentary of their oh-so familiar talking heads. This, to me is the essence of Fox News. From its on-air discussion groups, to its choice of stories, as well as its evening talk shows, it is all about spoon-feeding people with stories of heroic conservatives, fighting to strengthen America against its enemies, both foreign (terrorists) and domestic (liberals). The film demonstrates how Fox News achieves this through @ steady feed of news reporting that is highly regulated, intentionally biased, and aligned around a predetermined ideological slant, As far as I'm concemed, to explain the behavior of Fox News by saying that itis simply "standing up for the conservative perspective in a sea of mainstream media liberalism" as many conservatives do, is highly misleading. I believe one can rightfully stand up for any perspective they want, just so long as they aren't forced to resort to dishonest, intentionally biased reporting in order to make or bolster their case. In oulloned, director Robert Greenwald makes a very ‘compelling case that Fox News, in the interests of carving out that niche for itself, does that far x more than the other news networks? ceShehata 3 we ws hee It is evident that Gaefoxea chofee Petia tscrnce so show Ka Novi ina bad light. They Jf he ° chogbe m many memos but one specific memo stood out to me which stated that marines should be a widen and not Snipers because it’s a negatively charged word. Another memo that GuufSted used to ilustated fox news bias, isthe memo that compares the atrocity ofthe Abu Ghraib prison with hose ofthe American captives ofthe Taliban. Foxlews asked why we are not focusing the treatment of the American prisoners over the treatment of the insurgents of Abu Ghraib. a é Nh i i i i it the Qutfoxed plays up Kent biasedagainst fox, Movs by playing spooky music throughout movie and incorporating scary text as well. This is intended to make &x bdws appear scary to the viewer. As I watched this movie I noticed that this strategy that. Ourfoxea used, worked for me and discouraged me to ever watch x Adws, even though I never have. war So thE inst & ph oe a gee Overall I think this film was very biased against fSx ews. Historical journalist are wee eo (°%y°" supposed tobe unbiased and report only the news as it happen. However this does not sefa)o be the case with certain news programs and stations, Since it is exposing the methods of a successful conservative organization, the conservatives who hear of Outfaxed will most likely write it off as nothing more than liberal propaganda. That to me is the ultimate problem with the polarized ‘American political scene. Just about anyone who would be interested in the subject matter of this Sia politically oriented as itis, has probably already made up their mind about Fox News one way or the other.