Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism

This film has pretty much been seen only on DVD, at house parties organized by MoveOn.org and other anti-right organizations; but we saw it at the Orinda Theater. It is a fairly telling condemnation of “Fair & Balanced” Fox News Channel and a few of its “commentators”. The film mostly consists of clips from Fox, apparently videotaped (on a fairly old machine — many of the clips had that “airbrushed” look that indicates some problem with the heads). We make the acquaintance — which some of us could live without — of such Fox heroes as Sean Hannity (who seems to be a fairly predictable right-wing commentator) and Bill O’Reilly (who seems to be a fairly predictable right-wing bully). O’Reilly’s treatment of Jeremy Glick, a survivor of a 9/11 family, and his later reinterpretations of what Glick had to say, are quite interesting.

A film worth seeing in this overcharged political season; but I suspect that, on DVD, it, like many political books of the past, will be nothing but a curiosity in a year or so.