“I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!” shouted Peter Finch’s character in Network. I felt a bit like yelling the same thing myself after watching Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, a hard-hitting and frightening exposé of the way Fox News slants practically everything it covers. Walter Cronkite, Jeff Cohen, Bob McChesney and Chelie Pingree are among the media experts who guide viewers through this story of Fox News and its effect on society.

Although director Robert Greenwald uses an unexciting  “talking heads” filmmaking approach in this disturbing documentary, he certainly calls on some reliable sources to make his point. Former Fox news producers, reporters, bookers and writers reveal what it’s like to work for Murdoch’s organization. They talk about how they were forced to play up a right-wing approach if they wanted to keep their jobs. The consensus is that there’s no “journalism” happening at Fox news, just propaganda. Therefore, “fair and balanced” is an ironic motto for such biased coverage.

On the other hand, Murdoch points to people like Greta Van Sustern and the liberal guy on “Hannity and Colmes” as proof his network is balanced. Greenwald counters that every time a program includes a liberal, two right-wingers must also appear – or if two liberals, three right-wingers and so forth. And that’s just one example cited in this well-researched documentary.

I haven’t spent a lot of time watching the Fox News because I can't help being annoyed by some of the same techniques highlighted in Outfoxed. It’s hard to respect reporters who neglect to give sources for their comments. Most of the time, “Some people say” is used instead.  I also dislike the lack of courtesy given to guests who disagree with the network’s party line, especially on The O’Reilly Factor.

Pity the poor Outfoxed team. They had to monitor Fox News 24 hours a day for months. Volunteers around the country watched every hour of Fox News programming and noted specific examples of biased reporting.  It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it.

Evidence gathered by the Outfoxed team is eye-opening and disheartening. It’s even worse than I expected. Such biased reporting by a major network that’s controlled by one person threatens the democratic process and should be dealt with harshly by the FCC.

(Released by The Disinformation Company; not rated by MPAA. More details at www.outfoxed.org.)