Michael Moore, Conservative Outrage, and the Lies of Fahrenheit 9/11 by Jan Ireland

Michael Moore, Conservative Outrage,

and the Lies of Fahrenheit 9/11

By Jan Ireland

June 22, 2004

Michael Moore has found distributors for his film Fahrenheit 9/11 after Disney declined to allow their Miramax Division to handle it. Lions Gate Films and IFC Films will open the "documentary" on about a thousand screens later this month. Showtime is scheduled to bring it to paid television.

Moore's past "work" is shoddy and anti-American in the extreme. To secure the lifestyle and attention he craves, the man former President George H. W. Bush referred to as "slimeball" seems willing to produce pretty much anything liberal dollars will pay for. And liberal dollars before a Presidential election in November will pay for quite a lot of George Bush and America bashing. The American military, particularly, is targeted in this film.

Conservatives consider the "documentary" outrageous, based on widely reviewed early screenings. Moore himself makes no secret of its anti-Bush and anti-military focus - incongruous, to say the least, in a time of war. But bashing all things American has so far been good for Moore's career.

Though Moore's Bowling for Columbine was discredited for lies, distortions, and heavily selective editing, it won an Academy Award. In France recently, at the Cannes Film Festival, Fahrenheit 9/11 won a Palme d'Or, along with a record twenty minute standing ovation. France's opposition to the war, its bribes from Saddam Hussein, and its attempts to become the "leader" of Europe make the Film Festival decision suspect. It is likely that honoring the film resulted from the anti-American feeling of liberal attendees and judges.

As so often happens with liberals, Moore's lying has not seemed to harm his career. Nor has it been restricted to films. Fred Barnes, Executive Editor of The Weekly Standard, wrote in "Encounter With the Cannes Man" about a completely fabricated conversation Michael Moore inserted into his Stupid White Men book. Moore detailed a phone call where he "caught" Fred Barnes lying. The conversation never took place. Fred Barnes had never met or talked on the phone to Michael Moore. Such is the caliber of Michael Moore's "work," though the book remained on the NY Times Bestseller list for weeks.

Predictably Moore attempts to blame conservatives for his distribution problems, but a thousand screen opening certainly disputes that. There is every indication, however, that conservatives will not give the film - maker or distributors - dollars.

Moore's rapacious appetite for money, limousines, travel, and attention is a stark contrast to the "working class" image he tries to cultivate, and causes him to make rash decisions.

He is attempting to get the MPAA rating of "R" downgraded so that children can get into the film without parental knowledge. That would increase sales for Moore, but likely anger parents who eschew the "violent and disturbing images and…language" that occasioned the "R" rating.

Michael Moore is riding high right now. But tales of arrogance, outbursts, excessive demands, and hubris abound.

Liberals often overlook such things when they like the output, but there is always someone more daring or more fawning. Michael Moore has only a downfall to anticipate. Eventually liberals will notice that he is exactly what he rails against - a rich, fat, pale, stupid white man. Then they will realize that Michael Moore has lied to them. And liberals would find that…outrageous.