Michael Moore has a new movie coming out called Fahrenheit 911. It’s about what you might expect: how Bush is sending the country down the toilet with his warmongering, disregard for people who aren’t rich, terrible environmental policies, disregard for separate of church and state, and all the other things liberals find wrong with this administration.
I tend to think his movies are really entertaining, and thought-provoking. What I tend to think they aren’t, is completely true. It drives me bonkers how he has racked up a track record for being the guy who misleads as often as he points out interesting truths.
His press release about the censorship of his new movie is just another example. He says Disney is blocking their subsidiary Miramax from distributing his movie because it might anger Jeb Bush, brother of George W, and governor of Florida. He says this is covered in an article in the New York Times.
If you actually take the time to read the article he quotes, you see something a little different.
Is Disney blocking Miramax from distributing the film? Yes, there are. Does that suck? Yes, it does.
Are they saying it’s because of the tax breaks they don’t want to lose should Jeb Bush get upset about this movie? NO. Disney’s public position, quoted in the article, is that they do not want to get involved in a partisan movie like Fahrenheit 911. They say it does Disney no good to distribute anything so politically charged, liberal or conservative.
The quote in the article about the tax cuts is from Michael Moore’s agent. The agent says he talked to Michael Eisner, and Eisner said the stuff about the tax cuts. Whether or not that’s true, it’s only coming from Michael Moore’s agent. Disney has said no such thing publicly.
I’m with Moore on believing his movie deserves to be heard, and that the reasoning Disney is providing is weak. Michael Moore’s movies always do well, because they entertain. Even if they are “political lightning rods”, they sell tickets. Selling tickets is good for business.
That’s why it aggravates me that Moore took the extra, unnecessary step of saying that The New York Times broke a story on Disney blocking his movie to keep their tax breaks. I’m sure Disney is getting a lot of tax breaks for a lot of reasons, and I probably wouldn’t agree with all of them. But Michael Moore is the one saying this, not Disney. This is called misquoting. Anne Coulter, a favorite (and let’s face it, rightfully so, she’s terrible) target of liberals, does this sort of crap all the time.
Does he really need to stoop to that level? I say no.
Creepy. What does it all mean?
Posted by Joe Chellman at May 9, 2004 9:26 AM
Just an odd observation. The link to spinsanity.org list critiques of Moore's work, all by authors with first names starting with a 'B'.
Posted by Adriaan at May 9, 2004 8:26 AM