This is what claims a recently released documentary, called OutFOXed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism.
The name, OutFOXed, alludes to the Fox News Channel (FNC) which in the United States is rated as the cable news network with the largest number of regular viewers.
The documentary demonstrates the conservative bias that's handed down by Fox's owner, media mogul Rupert Murdoch. It gathers interviews from media watchdogs and former Fox employees, but their overwhelming condemnation of Fox's skewed news practices isn't half as effective as footage taken from Fox itself:
- an appalling montage of Bill O'Reilly telling guests to "shut up"
- repeated efforts to paint Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry as weak and waffling, while President Bush is captured in respectful, reverent images
- management memos dictating language, subject matter, and point of view.
OutFOXed examines how media empires owned by Murdoch have been running a "race to the bottom" in television news: As ever-enlarging corporations take control of the public's right to know, democracy is set at danger.
In the case of FNC it's one single person that opines for the public. Murdoch's entire audience is estimated at 4'700'000'000 people which represent three quarters of the entire world's population. What information he decides to broadcast greatly influences U.S. Americans' votes. We all know what a presidential election can cause; a war in Iraq, no action on global warming. Just to mention a couple.
The result of this documentary is an intense examination of Fox News and the lie inherent in its favorite motto: "Fair and Balanced."