Praise for Fahrenheit, Moore Or Less

Michael Moore: Fiery Protester Or Fahrenheit Firmly In The Mainstream?

P. Scott Cummins © 2004 The Urbane R

Kerry distorts, takes out of context, and mistakes all the time, but these are not central to his efforts to win. We have a responsibility to hold both sides accountable to the public interest, but that doesn't mean we reflexively and artificially hold both sides "equally" accountable when the facts don't warrant that.
ABC New Political Director Mark Halperin (October 8, 2004)

Thanks in no small part to the Drudge Report and release of the ABC News ‘accountable’ memo, Michael Moore can breathe easy. He is no longer in the eye of the storm. And he can be sure to thank Dan Rather, at CBS News, for vainly defending a Sixty Minutes report based on falsified documents - which if they had not been caught, could have materially altered the outcome of the 2004 presidential election. On Rather’s heals came Halperin, less than one month before the vote, himself a network boss at ABC News, staking out a bizarre position providing the post-Watergate generation with a fresh take on situational ethics.

Meanwhile, has Michael Moore become… mainstream? At the Democratic Convention in July, endless gushing for him as a kind of Dan Akroyd – inspired Soul Man of the movement. Then, at the Republican Convention in August, he easily morphs into the role of spiral notebook – packing newspaper columnist, playing the Studs Terkel common man role to the hilt. Meanwhile, Fahrenheit 911 racked up that common man more than $100 million by the end of June. Clearly, Moore is none of these things. Yet at the same time, he is all of these things – and more (pardon the pun).

Sensing a great opportunity to make big bucks, others have quickly followed. Clintonista television mega-producer Harry Thomason, the biggest name in the pack, rush-released his The Hunting of the President – The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill Clinton. That’s a mouthful Harry - its all in the title – did you consider variations on Evening Shade or Emeril? Next up we have California Congress-daughter Alexandra Pelosi - rolling out Journeys with George. Then the ‘other’ Swift boat veterans, those on the Kerry campaign, firing off Brothers in Arms. And there have been others, many others, released in just the last few weeks.

Perhaps most salient for purposes of understanding politics in America today, however, is Outfoxed – Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism. As a student in Great Britain twenty five years ago, the absence of balance in tabloid newspapers shocked me. Today, of course, we see colorfully glossy magazine-style sets brought ‘out of the box’ in television ‘infotainment’ formats. Somehow that’s a travesty on Fox, but a non-issue in the world of CBS. But then again, the ghosts of Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly linger in the sainted air at CBS.

Michael Moore is at the center of it all in Democratic politics – he the party’s documentarian-in-chief, uber columnist and chaplain – all rolled into one, ahem, BIG package. He has also taken over the whip from Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi – preferring to use it on his own party faithful instead. I prefer to gain my understanding of Moore from Moore himself. Witness this from Moore’s own website, dutifully republished by local Seattle Democratic Party operatives at www.36th.org:

If I hear one more person tell me how lousy a candidate Kerry is and how he can't win... Dammit, of COURSE he's a lousy candidate -- he's a Democrat, for heavens sake! That party is so pathetic, they even lose the elections they win! What were you expecting, Bruce Springsteen heading up the ticket? Bruce would make a helluva president, but guys like him don't run -- and neither do you or I. People like Kerry run.

Thanks for the clarification. And in case you need coaching on how to view America through Mike’s glasses, he is only too happy to help you buck up:

Do not let those well-produced Bush rallies of angry white people scare you. Turn off the TV! (Except Jon Stewart and Bill Moyers -- everything else is just a sugar-coated lie).

So in case you didn’t have time to catch Fahrenheit 911 in the theaters, by all means do get a hold of the DVD. Moore’s brand of populism is not hard to miss when it hits you. I have watched Fahrenheit 911 several times, all with the hope of getting past the political shock value it wallops – hoping to gain a sense of its place in presidential history.

What lingers is the loathing. For the Clinton impeachment. For the 2000 election. When viewed through the prism of Clinton’s war in Bosnia, and his ‘cruise missile diplomacy’ from Belgrade to Khartoum – a decision on exactly when the U.S. broke faith with the socialists of Continental Europe remains an open question. But Moore did parlay European myopia into a Cannes Film Festival grand prize: The Palme D’Or for feature films, since even Moore admits the film is but agitprop based on the agonized editing that removes it from the documentary category.

The Germans use the term schadenfreude- meaning pleasure derived from other’s misfortunes. That sums up how I feel about where Michael Moore’s heart lies during an era of fighting a war brought to our shores and skies by enemies bent on our destruction. And frankly it appears that at the core of Moore’s loathing you will find him railing at the political party he claims to support. But better to again let Moore speak regarding his motivation. So just in case you just don’t have time between now and the election, allow Moore to sum it up for you:

The country is almost back in our hands. Not another negative word until Nov. 3rd! Then you can bitch all you want about how you wish Kerry was still that long-haired kid who once had the courage to stand up for something. Personally, I think that kid is still inside him. Instead of the wailing and gnashing of your teeth, why not hold out a hand to him and help the inner soldier/protester come out and defeat the forces of evil we now so desperately face. Do we have any other choice?

That just about crystallizes the whole thing. Thanks Michael, you truly are my man Dubya’s secret weapon.

(P. Scott Cummins, The Urbane R, has never flip-flopped on being pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-environment and against the death penalty. He is not an undecided voter. Convince him otherwise at issues@pscottcummins.com )