Watching FOX News (which I only do occassionally for ten minutes a time and only for laughs, I assure you) is the modern day equivelant of watching the old 1965 film, "Hold On!" starring the desrevedly forgotten British pop band, Herman's Hermits: so mind-fuckingly awful, it's actually fun to watch.

FOX News is pornograpfy. Thgis is something that I've been saying for ten years. Thanks to Robert Greenwald for pointing it out in excruciating detail. If you haven't seen his film, "Out-FOX-ed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism", you really ought to. It is essential viewing in order to understand what's happened to the media in this once-great country.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
"The Rant" by Tom Degan

OTHER FILMS BY ROBERT GREENWALD:
Walmart: The High Cost of Low Cost
Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War
IRAQ FOR SALE: The War Profiteers

All of these films are available on DVD and must be seen.

peace....

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I believe the videomaker overstates his case when he claims he is "banned" by youtube. Youtube members are the ones who decide if something should have a warning before viewing. And actually, since Greenwald is ALWAYS making the claim he is "banned" by youtube whilst he is spamming other videos comment areas, I wouldn't be surprised if it was Greenwald himself who flagged his own video.

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Back in 2001 I discovered my operator in Madrid (Spain) had started carrying FoxNews. I had been doing my best to inform myself from international feeds ever since I started catching subtitled Jennings every morning before going to highschool, and was already watching CNN, SkyNews and BBC whenever there was an international story I wanted to follow, so I added Fox to my diet.

Man it was crap... but crap so fun you couldnt stop watching. I kept catching bizarre moments and the weirdest, most sick takes on issues. It had the dim neon-ligh look of a roadside brothel and pretty blonde anchors advocating "kicking doors and taking names" on morning shows, hard to beat that. It was flashy, silly and avobe all, tacky...but then I found him.

My love for Bill O'Reilly was instantaneous and had all the elements of kink. It was a guilty, dirty pleasure, but every morning (in spain) I watched The Factor late night rerun. While I was a student and later, when I worked from home, I was able to watch him daily, delighted in his rudeness and his obnoxious rantings, his out-of-logic conclussions and his sanctimonious, aloof pose. Spanish media and international news services lacked any of that, except for a couple of radio hosts in a Church-owned broadcaster. I didn't knew all my life I had been hoping to find someone I loved to hate so much as Bill O'Reilly.

I now can't watch him because of my schedule, but like a porno junkie browsing for 10 second feeds of smut, I jump at every oportunity to watch a cut from his show here in Alternet or wherever I get him. Its not the same but one does with what one has.

Foxnews does not need smut and sex... Cheap, debasing and degrading journalism has a face and its that of Mr.O'reily...

(I think I got hot writing this...)

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Fox News is bad because, like many tv programs, they hit you with patterns of flashing lights designed to tap your subconscious and make you susceptible to brainwashing. Fox is best at this type of attack.

Fox News is bad because they push your buttons, in a primal sense. The same way a piece of tuna pushes a cat's buttons. It's the lowest form of manipulation. It's a direct psychological attack, and in the end it will completely destroy a person's ability to reason, as it did for the 70% of fox viewers who thought Saddam = 9/11.

Fox does all these despicable things, and their viewers love it, even though they are being lied to on a massive scale. Fox News is in fact 10 times worse than Greenwald depicts. Outfoxed isnt even that great of a documentary. Certainly not good enough to make a fox news zealot actually stop watching it. Orwell rolls in his grave is a much better expose on Fox. But when it comes down to it, only people like Jeff Rense or Alex Jones can truly deprogram someone who is addicted to fox news.

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I also watch FOX from time-to-time for entertainment (LOL). The right-wing, sensationalist crap they put out is quite unbelievable. But, what is so terribly bad about them is how many Americans depend on them for news. They significantly shape the American right-wing consensus. The horror of them is that so many, many, Americans believe them. During the run-up to the Iraq war, it was a litany of Saddam's WMD's and Al-Queda in Iraq, none of it true, lie after lie. But, they helped form the support Bush had and his re-election. Now, FOX is on to the next agenda, getting America ready to attack Iran. And, the lies have just started.

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Fox is responsible for some terrible lies and misunderstandings, not the least of which is their role in getting George Bush appointed president by calling him the winner of the 2000 election when the exit polls showed that he would lose. I would like to return to the days when fairness and accuracy in news reporting was required and media companies could be held accountable for deliberately trying to manipulate public beliefs to benefit a particular party or candidate (such as Giuliani, today). Something really does need to be done about that.

I give credit to Greenwald for pointing out the hypocrisy of Fox News' pandering to rapid conservatives while feeding them a steady diet of tits and ass. (BTW, when will Fox realize that closeted gay men make up a huge portion of their audience, judging by the number of conservative leaders who seem to be spilling out of said closet with surprising regularity?) However, if he really wanted to be effective, I suppose he would make some effort to aim his hit piece at the Fox viewers instead of the loyal opposition to Fox.

Instead, Greenwald is encouraging liberals and progressives to get behind a movement to effect censorship through lobbying corporate interests and the FCC (that is run by hangers on to the corporate establishment). The object of ire in this case is not the outrageous political slant Fox is promoting as "Fair and Balanced" news, it is a matter of style and personal expression that some find titillating, others offensive--in other words, it is an attack on freedom of expression, not on falsehoods that are a danger to democracy. This is only a step or two away from calling for book burnings. Speaking of hypocrisy.

Sorry, Mr. Greenwald, but you have become a force for the sort of strong arm opposition to freedom of speech that we in the progressive realm have long fought against, even when that bedrock principle partially benefits those with whom we disagree or find offensive. I'll have no part of it. I look forward to further efforts on your behalf that enlighten without trying to stifle the honest, if not universally appreciated, expression of thoughts and experiences some find noteworthy.

If we don't want to be inundated by the T&A on Fox, we need only avoid turning it on. Personally, the only time I see any of it is when it is featured in a video clip online. If others get off on Fox's appeal to cheap sexual fantasy's they are welcome to it, as far as I am concerned. And more power to you, Mr. Greenwald, if you want to ridicule them mercilessly for lapping that stuff up while objecting to the "the homosexual lifestyle," "gratuitous sexuality," "in your face" eroticism, etc. But when it comes to joining the crowd that wants to dictate what others can say or hear, I not only won't go along with it, I will oppose the entire endeavor.

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"Could it be an infringement of the freedom of the press / To have pictures of women in states of undress?" - Billy Bragg

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Tonight, Robert Greenwald will be taking a little time-out from his Fox Porn crusade to be guest speaker at L.A.'s Alt-Film Festival, which describes itself as concerned with "indie films, cult movies, midnight movies, smut, grindhouse, mumblecore, alt-porn, transgressive cinema, underground film... y'know, the kinda stuff Hollywood remakes 20 years later."

Appearing with Mr. Greenwald will be porn princess Joanna Angel, whose sado-smut film Re-Penetrator will be screened as part of tonight's line up.

Fox News fans, get yourself to Westwood, now! You won't want to miss this!

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I get all my news from the Internet now. I grew up watching TV, and now I look at it as some kind of traitor. Ever since they took out the movies and the comedies lost their 'edge,' I got fed up and started recording what I wanted to watch. When everything went to cable, which is usually nothing more than a bunch of repeats, I cut down some more. Now a TV is no more than that thing where I can see what's on my DVDs. Millions of dollars in FCC licensing to show nothing. However, God help you if you want to get them off that channel frequency. They won't give it up and they won't move out of the way. It's amazing that in half a century something designed by the government as an educational tool (TV) is now garbage. TV could have been the place where everyone could have their say about anything, politics, health, education, local situations, you name it. Instead, it's a just one more electronic appliance around the home. If you are not a reader, you'll never know what's going on, let alone what to think. Let's face it folks; as far as information goes, the Internet is all that's left. Most libraries never get enough funding to keep their collections up to date. You'll be seeing books you have read in high school on the shelves for quite some time. You might even read them again once your social security kicks in. I am amazed that, after so many years of goofy computer equipment and software, this has become the window into life that, again, TV was supposed to have brought right into our homes.

Another thing about this topic is that this is proof that soft porn has and will always be okay by most of our culture, at least the youthful and the leering segments of it. I think most men like sex, but I also think quite a few of us don't want a daily report on it. Soft porn is prevalent because it is the safest way for pretty girls to make money without losing their whole reputation in a single swish of the hips. The other porn is still an acting career cemetery; a girl that goes there will never enter the "clean" side. No more Traci Lords. Thanks to our TV programming having turned into nothing but dead air, what we have is airwave squatting. If we turn our attention to sports, we see the same thing. The local team games have always been the majority of the games you can watch. Other teams, boxing, etc., all that stuff went on pay per view. Regardless of what these people say about game tickets, the fact is that EVERYONE WHO WANTS TO WATCH THE GAME CANNOT FIT INTO THAT STADIUM. Therefore, they can designate something like a three-hour drive radius from the stadium as a place to watch the game for free. The truth is, the games are expensive. They don't care about attendance. World Series games are usually full.

Anyways. Even though I don't think the content is so bad, I believe that constantly using it for filler---especially by totally uncool people like Bill O'Reilly (and, no, I am not a teenager---it's awful. I hope the FCC starts to drool over the amount of fines they can use against FOX.

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if YouTube wouldn't take it, then i'm sure YouPorn would...

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