{"id":612,"date":"2004-07-18T23:42:58","date_gmt":"2004-07-19T04:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alevin.com\/?p=612"},"modified":"2004-07-18T23:42:58","modified_gmt":"2004-07-19T04:42:58","slug":"outfoxed-in-austin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/?p=612","title":{"rendered":"OutFoxed in Austin"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was also at the MoveOn sponsored showing of OutFoxed that Tim Trentham<\/a> wrote about. The video shows how the partisanship of Fox news trumps the pretense of news reporting. Funny but telling bit included a reporter assigned to provide stirring and dramatic coverage of Reagan’s birthday at the Reagan library a few years ago, even though there was nobody there but a group of fourth graders; and watching the Fox team echo RNC talking points, like the day they repeated the ridiculous meme mocking John Kerry for knowing French. The scarier parts were the news anchors calling anyone opposed to the Iraq war unpatriotic, and the surveys falsehoods believed by many Fox viewers, like WMD discovered in Iraq,.
\nThe follow on actions promoted by MoveOn, Common Cause, and other sponsoring groups include
\n* opposing media consolidation
\n* asking local networks for fairer news coverage
\n* supporting AirAmerica, a new, left-of-center radio network, and other alternative networks. (Added. Note. I haven’t seen AirAmerica – don’t have an opinion about it).
\n* a campaign to legally challenge the Fox News “Fair and Balanced” trademark. One the one hand you can’t trademark a phrase, so the suit has grounds. On the other hand it seems rather goofy to sue about a marketing slogan (“Coke doesn’t really add life….”).
\nWhat really struck me, watching the debased state of corporate media, was the role that we can play. It’s not just about begging the mass media to do a better job (in conflict with their mission to make a profit by selling violence and sex).
\nIt’s about being<\/i> the media. Local news is understaffed and insubstantial. If a blogger goes to a meeting and writes about what happened, we can cover the story.
\nAnd it’s about using the access we have to to get more sources of media. John Robb does a much better job of covering international terrorism in Global Guerrillas<\/a> than the mainstream press. Google News provides a selection of stories from worldwide media. It’s eye-opening to see the take on the day’s news around the world.
\nSo, we need to fight the system, but it’s as important to create the new system.
\nMore – nice piece by Lessig<\/a> disarming criticism of the film.
\nStill more, via Joi Ito — 80% of of blog readers read blogs for “news they can’t get elsewhere.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was also at the MoveOn sponsored showing of OutFoxed that Tim Trentham wrote about. The video shows how the partisanship of Fox news trumps the pretense of news reporting. Funny but telling bit included a reporter assigned to provide stirring and dramatic coverage of Reagan’s birthday at the Reagan library a few years ago, … Continue reading “OutFoxed in Austin”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-austin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prDRq-9S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}