How To Make A Guerrilla Documentary (NYTimes Mag on "OutFoxed")

[VolcanoJen]

Great stuff here, for those following the buzz around "OutFoxed."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/magazine/11FOX.html

Excerpt:

''Outfoxed'' has been made in secret. The film is an obsessively researched expose of the ways in which Fox News, as Greenwald sees it, distorts its coverage to serve the conservative political agenda of its owner, the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. It features interviews with former Fox employees, leaked policy memos written by Fox executives and extensive footage from Fox News, which Greenwald is using without the network's permission. The result is an unwavering argument against Fox News that combines the leftist partisan vigor of a Michael Moore film with the sober tone and delivery of a PBS special. A large portion of the film's $300,000 budget came in the form of contributions in the range of $80,000 from both MoveOn and the Center for American Progress, the liberal policy organization founded by John Podesta, the former chief of staff for Bill Clinton; Greenwald, who is not looking to earn any money from the project, provided the rest.

A week after its New School premiere, the film will be shown throughout the country in hundreds of small local screenings, arranged by MoveOn, where people will be able to watch and discuss it. Though the existence of ''Outfoxed'' has been quietly publicized, its particular nature and content have been closely guarded for fear, Greenwald says, that Fox would try to stop the film's release by filing a copyright-infringement lawsuit. Nobody has ever made a critical documentary about a media company that uses as much footage without permission as Greenwald has, and the legal precedents governing the ''fair use'' of such material, while theoretically strong, are not well established in case law. He has retained the services of several intellectual-property lawyers and experts to help him navigate the ambiguous legal terrain. (A Fox News representative, in response to several phone calls, said that no one in the legal department was available to comment on copyright issues.)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Fox hates trial lawyers.

Why would they oppose entrepreneurialism? :shrug:

[Kholst]

2. they didn't seem to mind them

when they sued Al Franken over "Fair and Balanced." I *so* love that they lost that and helped his sales in the process.

[dumpster_baby]

3. killer article!

THIS is the future of media, the future of politics, and the future of entertainment, that and BROADBAND TV. Right now as I am typing this, I have a small window streaming a TV station from Taiwan--LIVE!

When enough AMericans get broadband at home, that will be a doomsday machine for the neoliberal rightwing game that has been played on America ever since electronics mass media got critical mass.....