Is Fox Fact or Fiction? They Report, YOU Decide

As some of you may not know, I am currently attending the University of Western Ontario and studying in the Media, Information & Technoculture program. First of all, I must say, that I LOVE this program. I am in my fourth and final year and one of the classes that I am taking is "Blogging: for Passion, Politics or Profit". Our first mission is to post a blog on our newly-created blog page about the notorious Fox News from watching the documentary "OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism". Here is a little snippet of what I think about fact and fiction in world of journalism:  

After watching the documentary of Out-Foxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, I was somewhat shocked at the lack of professionalism that Fox News was emulating. Although I have heard of the Fox News Channel, I have yet to sit down for a full viewing of the show – and rightly so. Fox News claims to deliver uncensored and objective information to the public in what they label as their “Fair and Balanced” news segment, but what they stand for is the exact opposite.

The Fox News channel is a conservative, right wing organization that disseminates what seems to be their own constructed views and perceptions to the public. Bob McChesney, host of the radio program “Media Matters” and Professor at the Department of Communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, claims that the United States has a government that “controls the privatization of information… the public doesn’t participate!” Media, as described in the documentary, is the nervous system of democracy: what the people learn is what the media tells them, or in the case of Fox News, what the media does NOT tell the public.

It is quite obvious that some anchors, such as the notorious Bill O’Reilly at Fox News, refuse to listen to anyone who may challenge to break down the propagandist pillars. Among major media conglomerates, it is common for their perspectives to present a certain dominant opinion in their messages. Fox News, as an example, exerts a constant fear on its employees if they challenge the corporations’ attitudes on certain perspectives. Politics or figures that are brought on the show are often ridiculed, humiliated or discredited as being untruthful. Those that do attempt to defy Fox’s frames of reference, they are told to “Shut up!” and have their words twisted by the uncompromising and pathological liar, Bill O’Reilly. So much for their “Fair and Balanced” slogan!

On Fox News, anchors introduce anonymous sources with the standardized introductions of “Some officials” or “Some people say”. Fox offers these clever ways of inserting opinion and no trace of facts, simply because opinion cannot be proven false. Guest Republicans brought onto Fox News were the dominant characters on the show, whereas a mere 17% of Democrats were found to have a weak or faux representation as liberals. With strict Republican views and the under representation of Democratic opinion, Fox’s mandate of “Fair and Balanced” seems to be the exact opposite of what they are trying to offer to the public. News is distorted and the public sphere is expected to derive their own opinions from these fake “facts”.

What is more disturbing is the misrepresentation and falsification of information and the elimination of truth and objectivity. Because Fox News is a predominantly Republican news channel, Fox News journalists are often forced to report on long, uncut news segments of Republican issues that have no news value. During Ronald Reagan’s birthday, for instance, was portrayed as a holy day, where school children were filmed singing “Happy Birthday” to the president. The news journalist, however, was suspended because the news segment was ”not celebratory enough”. Moreover, during a Bush interview, the anchor was told not to focus on the campaign to avoid any controversial issues that may portray Bush in a negative light. Fox news was not only a dishonest channel, but a news channel that censored information to the public.

At the end of the documentary, we are given a small pep talk to change the way our media disseminates information. The public needs to confront these media moguls by encouraging more public involvement and participation to change these government policies on media. This is the people’s democracy and should not let corporations control power at our dispense!