Dan Gillmor has some interesting comments about the new anti-Fox News documentary, “Outfoxed,”
There are rumors that Fox is preparing to launch some grenades at competing news organizations, showing alleged liberal bias. Fine. That would be fair turnaround, if provable. (It might also reinforce Fox’s standing as a Republican sock puppet, a separate issue.)
The movie is apparently made of a) outtake bits that were never broadcast on Fox News but that anyone could grab from its satellite feed), b) internal memos from Fox News and c) interviews with disgruntled employees of Fox News.
Now frankly, I think this is a great idea and I can’t wait to see the film. On the other hand, people in the print media like Dan and especially the New York Times, which apparently had a deal with the movie’s producers that they wouldn’t contact Fox News about the film until it was about to be released, are being extremely hypocritical about the film.
The odd thing is that media companies on the one hand demand and usually get transparency from other organizations and individuals, but refuse to make themselves equally transparent. Will Dan make available all the internal memos from SiliconValley.Com? Will the New York Times start publishing samples of what its writers produce before the editing process? No, of course, they won’t, but on the other hand they have no problem trumpeting a film that does precisely this to Fox News or publishing such information when they can get it. I’d like to see, for example, the Chicago Tribune, for example, start a section where they reprint salacious details from the divorce settlements of its staffers. Come on, the public has a right to know, right?