Outfoxing America

Published: Jul 19, 2004 1:18 PM

by John Podesta

From my work for Vermont Senator Pat Leahy, and later as White House Chief of Staff, I always knew that Howard Dean was one of our nation's most effective leaders. He was a terrific chief executive, a courageous voice for tolerance and, thanks to Howard Dean's leadership alone, every child in Vermont—and virtually every adult—is now able to see a doctor.

Tragically, it's a record a lot of Americans never heard about.

Instead we were all treated to week after week of "news" stories about Howard Dean's web site, his fundraising, his personality, and his speaking style.

What we were hearing was the Washington echo chamber. It's what happens when we have cut-rate news coverage guided by the conservative status quo and conventional wisdom.

Outrageously, the noise coming from the echo chamber is only growing louder.

As media corporations grow ever larger, independent voices are left with fewer opportunities to be heard. This is particularly true for progressives offering bold ideas.

That's why the Center for American Progress (www.americanprogress.org) joined forces with Moveon.org to sponsor Outfoxed; the hard-hitting Robert Greenwald film detailing the right-wing agenda guiding media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and the Fox News Channel.

Outfoxed documents how Fox News uses its reporters, anchormen and pundits to parrot the Bush administration's policies and presents them as facts.

Want proof?

How about Fox's Bill O'Reilly declaring: "Americans are looking for a strong leader. Mr. Bush has been that. And most Americans had emotion invested in him. He did exactly the right thing after 9/11." [Fox host Bill O'Reilly, 7/22/03]

Then there's Fox News Sunday host Tony Snow who said Bush's Iraq policy; "has created peaceful conditions in more than 90 percent of Iraq." Snow offered no source for his statistic. [Fox anchor Tony Snow, 10/14/03]

If that's not enough, there's Fox anchor Neil Cavuto who praised the right's anti-labor agenda because it represented "a view of individual worker spirits, a boundary-less type of environment where managers can talk directly to workers rather than through an intermediary like unions." [Fox anchor Neil Cavuto, 7/30/02]

Of course, no one has to tell the activists of Democracy for America that outfits like Fox aren't getting the story right. The reason you joined DFA is because you know that, no matter what the corporate media tells us, our country desperately needs to change course.

That's why I'm so proud that Howard Dean and the entire DFA team are helping to spread the word about Outfoxed. They understand that there's only one way to challenge the power and influence of the media conglomerates, and that's to confront them head on.

I know how much DFA's activists are doing to change the direction of our country, but I have one more suggestion. Obtain a copy of Outfoxed at: http://www.outfoxed.org. I encourage you to show it during a Meetup or other DFA gathering in your community. It can be a great organizing tool to bring together others who are fed up with corporate media and ready to make change happen.

Individually, none of us will ever have the strength it takes to fight back against companies like Fox, but together we do!