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Outfoxing "Outfoxed": The memos the
anti-Fox News documentary is afraid to show
This website is admittedly extraordinarily basic, dull, and uninteresting. It was put together very quickly in order to get in the public eye some Fox News memos the anti-Fox news documentary "Outfoxed" uses to support their claim of a conservative bias at Fox News. For a very short period of time on July 12, the memos were on the film's website, but then were removed, supposedly due to legal concerns.
I am happy to say that I received a copy of the memos that they do not want you to see. A PDF file of all the memos is below this introductory text.
Legal concerns are not really in play when it comes to leaked memos of private companies, as far as I know in my limited understanding. I have not seen anything online that indicates company memos are copyrighted automatically, though some companies have claimed theirs are specifically copyrighted. However, if an executive at Fox News desires that I remove these documents from my website, I will gladly do so. I do not desire to cause you trouble. Indeed, I am on your side, which is why I am publishing the memos that the anti-Fox forces do not want the public to see.
The memos actually support Fox as a fair and balanced network, one without a conservative agenda, and unlike most other networks, one without a liberal agenda. These memos set forth recommendations and guidelines on news coverage in the course of the day. Not one memo can be construed as endorsing a conservative spin on the news. At times, there is a demand to not highlight liberal slants to the news and to bring up a conservative point of view, but in my reading, there is nothing in these memos that actively demands a squashing of non-conservative viewpoints and the exaltation of only a conservative point of view to a story.
As usual, the left tries to make a case for "conservative" bias at Fox when there is no such bias. Just real, honorable, just journalism.
I now issue a call to journalists everywhere: your profession is noble when done right. In fact, I consider journalism one of the most important professions of all. Without a free press to keep a check on government, to expose corruption, to inform the public, the world would be lost and hopeless. But, most of you have lost your way. You have become agenda-driven news, news that highlights liberalism and criticizes conservatives at every turn.
Come back to where you should be. Model Fox News' balanced coverage. Take to heart to the founder of USA Today, Al Neuharth, who said, "The First Amendment guarantees a free press; the press itself must guarantee a fair one." It is your responsibility. Will you live up to it?
Alright.....enough introduction. Here is a link to the memos: Fox News memos highlighting journalistic fairness
The following points are some highlights from the full text of the memos. The highlights come from Cablenewser.com
You may get to the original post by clicking the entry time at the end of the weblog entry.
Some of the statements in the memos are questionable:
6/3/03: "The national forest as pot field story is pure Fox."
4/4/04: Fallujah: "We will cover this hour by hour today, explaining
repeatedly why it is happening. It won't be long before some people start to
decry the use of 'excessive force.' We won't be among that group."
04/28/04: "Let's refer to the US marines we see in the foreground as
"sharpshooters" not snipers, which carries a negative
connotation."
But the memos also show a news organization committed to ferreting out facts,
answering questions for viewers and getting the story straight.
3/18/03: "Resist the urge to make any assumption about the potential Al
Zawahiri story. Pakistani reports are often confused, especially when they come
to us secondhand. Report only what we know and attribute it."
04/08/04: "A battle is more than a macabre statistics report."
04/21/04: "If Michael Jackson is indicted on sex charges, it's a big story
for us, but PLEASE don't turn it into a nonstop circus."
04/28/04: "Do not ignore the Oil for Food story, please. Fox News is making
steady progress in investigating what could be, without exaggeration, the
biggest ripoff of all time."
And the memos also offer insight into FOX's operating procedures:
05/03/04: "We are all so used to using the AP wires that their (temporary)
absence today provides not just a challenge, but an opportunity. Check websites
(including AP) and pay special attention to the urgent queue until AP service is
restored. But use the outage to check just how much we rely on one service, and
figure out alternatives."
03/26/04: "We have competing speeches from the candidates for
president...We'll take whichever one starts first, time how long we stay with
it, then give the same time to the other."
03/24/04: "For everyone's information, the hotel where our Baghdad bureau
is housed was hit by some kind of explosive device overnight. ALL FOX PERSONNEL
ARE OK...Please offer a prayer of thanks for their safety to whatever God you
revere (and let the ACLU stick it where the sun don't shine)." 11:47:01
AM
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