‘Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s war on Journalism’
Ted Pease, journalism professor and head of the Department of Communication at Utah State University, is bringing a new, challenging documentary to USU for screening on Sept. 8 at 7 p.m. in the Ellen Eccles conference center auditorium.
Pease will be showing “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism” a Robert Greenwald documentary, followed by a panel discussion led by Pease, along with journalism professor Mike Sweeney and College Democrats Adviser Michael Lyons.
According to the film’s website, www.outfoxed.org, Outfoxed examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, have been running a “race to the bottom” in television news. The film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of the ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public’s right to know.
The film-makers hired people to watch different segments from Fox News and report on biased and political stories.
Pease said that republicans and some people in the media will say this is just another hatchet job by the left wing, like Michael Moore’s film, “Fahrenheit 9/11.”
But Pease said, “My fear is that important decisions are made by people and elected officials based on incomplete knowledge and facts. I think journalists and people who pay attention will agree that the Fox news channel has been, in many ways, an embarrassment to journalistic principle.”
He also said anyone who has watched Fox News has found it sensationalist, irresponsible, right leaning and even worse than anyone may have thought.
Pease wanted to bring the documentary to USU because he felt it was important to bring controversy to the forefront, especially in this highly charged political season.
“I think it’s particularly important, whether you agree or not in Utah’s conservative culture, to voice a dissenting opinion, or at least to examine what is going on around us and to ask questions.”
Pease said, “I think the film will make people angry, which is fine, and I hope it makes people even more than angry. I want people to think about what they see and hear and think that this could be more then just a liberal attack. Hopefully this film will get people to think about what they know and what they think they know.”
Sweeney, who will answer questions immediately following the film, said, “What I would say to everyone is if you want to be informed citizen you have to get your information from more than one source. Some people will try to give you news with their point of view and that is fine. A film like this may give people another reason to seek out other sources of news when they go throughout their day”
Pease said he has the best conversations with people whose views he disagrees with, adding that the goal of showing this film is not to make people more polarized but to serve as a vehicle to speak about important things like being well informed electorate’s and journalism’s role in our participatory democracy.
Pease quoted Bill Moyers as saying “Freedom and free press are birth twins and one can’t live without the other.”
In response to this quote, Pease said he hopes showing this film doesn’t just raise the volume of hyperbole of the people who come to see it. He would like to see people be fully informed about why they are making choices regarding their information sources, political views and opinions in general.
Sweeney, who is also a media historian, said, “The blending of news and opinion historically has a long track record. We as Americans actually prefer the opinionated style of news that we receive now, and that is fine, but I think that you ought to challenge what we are receiving. Whether it’s a liberal idea or conservative, right hand or left handed, vanilla or chocolate we’ve got to try the other flavor at least and see what it out there.
Pease said, “Speaking as a journalist, Americans are increasingly allowing themselves to be led by the onslaught of media. Americans are not media savvy and they don’t ask enough questions and that worries me, but journalism in general has been doing a poor job of asking the tough questions and getting answers.”
Keeping informed today is a full time job, Pease said, adding that anyone with access to the internet can be more informed than people previously thought possible.
“But there is simply too much information out there. It’s a paradox. This time in college student’s lives in one of the few times in which they will ever have the freedom to really look at the information they are receiving. Even though this film will work out to be controversial, college campuses are the place where we have the luxury of being able to have the time to wrestle with the difficult, uncomfortable questions and ideas that will be asked of us.”
Pease feels that this film is also important, not just for the media consumer, but for the journalist.
“I worry about the journalism profession,” Pease said. “We need to make sure that future journalists are prepared and willing to ask the tough questions. Journalists and consumers need to understand the responsibility of the media.”
Commenting on its importance for students to see a film like this, Sweeney said, “I think it’s useful to know your enemy. You might surprise yourself with what you could learn.”
Sweeney quoted Walter Lippman, author of the book “Public Opinion” as saying, “The world is big confusing place, if were were to spend all of our time looking for new ideas and sources, we would drop dead form exhaustion.”
“We don’t see something and then define it. We define it and then we see it,” Sweeney said. “I think people will come to see the film and already have preconceived notions about if they like it or not. Whatever their point of view is, I’m sure it will be reinforced.”
Pease said the purpose of holding a panel discussion is not to tell people what they just heard but to get a conversation going about what was just seen.
“People will always complain the networks are biased, but it all is really in the eye of the beholder. So I hope we can do it without screaming at each other.”
-kassrobison@cc.usu.edu