While we didn't manage to attend any of the moveon.org events this Sunday, we did have a copy of the film and watched it at about the same time everybody else did. Overall, we think it was pretty good. The high point of the film was at the 50 minute mark. Up until then one is treated to all sorts of examples of Fox Techniques - but as with anything, selective editing can make any enterprise look bad, so you have to trust that the filmmaker has integrity. Does Fox mislead their audience? Yes. That's driven home when the results of a poll are shown. In a way, it doesn't matter about the details of the Techniques, if they are deliberate, or what the agenda is at Fox. The fact is that Fox viewers believe in things that aren't true. Important things like WMDs, world opinion, Iraq - al Qaeda links.
A minor nit: We think there was a bit too much of O'Reilly at the expense of Fox's "news", but that's a matter of taste. (Also, our videotape did not appear to have closed-captioning.) For those interested, we've broken down the film into broad categories and listed the information in a table and a graphic.
| time | topic | elapsed |
| 00:00:00 | Misc intro | 00:01:20 |
| 00:01:20 | Murdoch owns vast media enterprise | 00:02:00 |
| 00:03:20 | Start operation in U.S. (1980's) | 00:02:10 |
| 00:05:30 | Fox News Network starts in 1996 | 00:05:45 |
| 00:06:40 | Employees monitored, fearful | 00:04:35 |
| 00:11:15 | Techniques: cut off guest | 00:01:05 |
| 00:12:20 | O'Reilly "shut up" | 00:01:00 |
| 00:13:20 | Techniques: Polling, Graphics, Music
American flag prominent | 00:02:10 |
| 00:15:30 | Techniques: News/Commentary, Ad Libs
Blur distinction btw news & comment | 00:02:30 |
| 00:18:00 | Techniques: "some people say"
A way to slip in opinion | 00:01:30 |
| 00:19:30 | Techniques: Experts
Conservatives: big names, professional
Liberals: obscure, weak | 00:02:20 |
| 00:21:50 | Techniques: Character assassination
Richard Clarke | 00:03:05 |
| 00:24:55 | Techniques: Fox Liberals
Colmes, Estrich, don't challenge forcefully | 00:02:00 |
| 00:26:55 | Techniques: Guests FAIR analysis of Special Report w/Hume 5 times as many Republicans compared to Democrats | 00:01:25 |
| 00:28:20 | Techniques: Stories covered
Jesse Jackson, immigration, 2000 election, Reagan's birthday, abortion, gays, church J. Wolcott: gay marriage not getting traction so FNC focused on religion | 00:06:40 |
| 00:35:00 | O'Reilly "shut up"
P. Hart (media anal for FAIR): "Perfect example of everything wrong with FNC"
Jeremy Glick interview | 00:07:30 |
| 00:42:30 | Fear / Build up to war anti-war = "enemies of state", "traitors" | 00:04:15 |
| 00:46:45 | If you aren't expecting propaganda, then it's more effective | 00:00:15 |
| 00:47:00 | Happy Iran | 00:02:10 |
| 00:49:10 | Poll results
Fox viewers were 4x more likely to be wrong on 3 basic issues:
WMD found: 33% (Fox), 11% (PBS/NPR)
Global support of war: 35% (Fox), 5% (PBS/NPR)
Iraq – al Qaeda links: 67% (Fox), 16% (PBS/NPR) | 00:01:35 |
| 00:50:45 | Partisan : adjunct of Republican party | 00:01:00 |
| 00:51:45 | Carl Cameron interviews Bush in 2000, his wife was campaigning for Bush | 00:01:35 |
| 00:53:20 | Fox called 2000 election, John Ellis (Bush cousin), networks followed, Ailes apologises | 00:02:40 |
| 00:56:00 | Hostile to Clinton, favorable to Bush | 00:01:00 |
| 00:57:00 | 2004: Kerry's medals | 00:01:40 |
| 00:58:40 | 2004: Bush stump speeches | 00:01:20 |
| 01:00:00 | 2004: Kerry's flip-flops. French | 00:03:30 |
| 01:03:30 | 2004: econ. good, Kerry bad for econ. | 00:03:00 |
| 01:06:30 | Fox Effect: influences other cable nets | 00:03:10 |
| 01:09:40 | A call to action: get involved | 00:03:50 |
| 01:13:30 | credits |
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