With Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," a full-frontal assault on President George W. Bush, opening later this week, the president's defenders have begun their counterattack.
The political group Move America Forward has begun a campaign to pressure movie theaters not to show Moore's political propaganda "Fahrenheit 9/11." The e-mail addresses of heads of the theater chains have been posted.
On June 13, Fox News's Bill O'Reilly compared Moore to Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl and went on to say, "Why would anyone want to see this propaganda? I just have no idea why. I have no interest in it at all. And by the way I wanted it out. I wanted--if you want to go see it, knock yourself out, but it's just rank propaganda. I wouldn't go see right-wing propaganda either."
Just a few moot points:
* People should not condemn or judge a film they have not seen. No fair calling "The Passion" anti-Semitic if you did not bother to see it, remember? If someone wants to join in the discussion of "Fahrenheit 9/11," then they need to pay Moore his $8.
* Anyone who needs to make Nazi comparisons loses all respectability. It's just tasteless unless there's actual genocide involved.
* "Propaganda" is one of those words that's been given a fake, emotional smear definition -- kind of like how people will use "cult" to describe a religion they do not like. Its real definition is "Material disseminated by the advocates or opponents of a doctrine or cause." Thus O'Reilly is just as much a propagandist as Moore.
Thankfully, Moore has created his own "war room" to defend the film's facts. Democratic strategists and former spokesmen of the Clinton administration Chris Lehane and Mark Fabiani are leading it.
With "Bowling For Columbine," numerous individuals came forth with all kinds of claims of Moore's lies and distortions. This always seemed weird given that the film actually supports an anti-gun control thesis in its comparison of the United States with Canada, a country with just as much gun availability but a fraction of the violence rates.
Web sites popped up slamming Moore. A Moore-style attack documentary, "Michael Moore Hates America," is even in production, with an August release date.
Moore addressed these attacks himself, many pretty convincingly, posting outtakes, links and additional documents on his Web site. Still, it was not enough. It's good he's got professionals to take care of it now.
Moore is the most prominent of the "info-tainers" on the left. With "Fahrenheit 9/11" he's again pulling another political "Mary Poppins": A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. Take the ideas and present them in an entertaining way with humor and a distinct, aggressive personality. O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Al Franken and others are similar.
While all these individuals have value in that they get people energized and thinking about politics, I'm still a little uncomfortable with all of them, even the ones I agree with sometimes.
In a way, Moore and the info-tainers are the Quentin Tarantinos of politics -- flashy, compelling and violent, warranting emotional love/hate response. Many people today enter serious film appreciation through Tarantino's movies. Eventually, though, while still enjoying QT's flicks, one realizes that he's not God and his films are not scripture.
It's the same with the info-tainers. Eventually you just do not need the sugar with your medicine.
Additional links of note:
"Conservatives launch pre-emptive strike against documentary critical of Bush
'Fahrenheit 9/11' called propaganda"
[http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/06/16/MNGED76SI31.DTL&type=printable]
"Stop Michael Moore" [http://www.moveamericaforward.org/NewsMax/]
"Bill O'Reilly speaks out on 'Fahrenheit 9/11'" [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,122468,00.html]
"'Propaganda' definition" [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=propaganda]
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