33 internal FOX editorial memos

Paul points to a list of memos over at media matters for America. It provides an insight into the thinking behind the scenes at Fox News.

What worries me is whether similar shaningans prevail at its sister station Sky News, or Sky News Ireland. Could there be a UK version of FOX News Senior Vice President, News Editorial John Moody and Los Angeles Bureau Chief Ken LaCoste? Does it raise serious issues about standards in journalism?

The report stems from a documentary:

Documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald’s new film Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, which interviews former FOX employees to provide “an in-depth look at Fox News [Channel] and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public’s right to know,” premiered at the New School University in New York on July 13. The FOX News Channel markets itself as “fair and balanced,” promising that “We report. You decide.”

You can watch a trailer of the documentary here.

Some of the memos sound pretty crazy, but since I have never worked in a newsroom I cannot really judge all that well. Perhaps anyone with an idea of the practices of internal memos in Murdoch owned stations could comment? LOL.

Here is an example:

Moody on America’s European “allies”:

[At] the UN, Catherine Herridge will follow the US sponsored resolution calling [fo]r the lifting of sanctions against Iraq. Not surprisingly, we’re facing [re]sistance from our erstwhile European buddies, the French and Germans (5/9/03).

[Bu]sh’s G-8 trip is actually less important than his fledgling efforts to knock [t]ogether the Israeli and Palestinian PMs’ heads. Let’s keep in mind that the [G-]8 contains the most obstreperous dissidents against the war on terror. Bush [ha]s a long memory and new friends in Poland the rest of Eastern Europe (5/29/03).