I'm amazed at how many people dislike Michael Moore...greatly. A lot of reasonable people really despise the guy. Ok, he's kind of an arrogant tool. There are a lot of people out there like him though. People have a problem with him because he distorts the truth. Ok, that's valid, but he didn't start it. Since when do people care about the truth? Ever watch Dateline? 20/20? 60 Minutes? I've never seen so much harmful rhetoric and distorted truths as I have on the unbiases, honest, fair and balanced news.
For example, once again this year the evening news is having ways to protect your children from getting their halloween candy poisoned. How many incidents have been reported where a child was poisoned by halloween candy? Zero. Some have been poisoned by their own parents but I hardly think it's fair to count them. So another example of fear and frenzy created by honest reporting.
Back to MM though. He spins his movies and gets the angles he wants. SO? Everyone does that! It's called persuasion! It's called picking things favorable to your argument! It happens al l the time! Why is it supposedly so bad? Because he is made a documentary. SO? Just because it's non-fiction doesn't mean that it has to be right. What if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints made a movie about Jesus or Joseph Smith or Bringham Young? And what if it wasn't the truth or it couldn't be proven it wasn't the truth? I would still think it would be a documentary because it's obviously not fiction. Just because the mormon church spins it as they believe does that make it wrong? What if a church makes a movie about how creationism is the only real belief about the creation of the world? Is that a documentary? Of course! Is it biased? Probably. Many people don't belive in strict creationism, but they wouldn't really care if the church came out with an argument in the form of a documentary.
A more popular than Fahrenheit 911 this year was The Passion. It was a movie about the death of Jesus. Now, there is probably less evidence that this movie was real than F911. Why didn't anyone have a problem with this? It wasn't fiction. If I said it was fiction, I would get crucified. But was it a documentary? Kind of. It was an entertaining documentary, like F911. It wasn't supposed to be informative or neutral, but it was to convey a specific point. Why do people hate Michael Moore just because he wasn't completely honest or his movie had some spin? Didn't Mel Gibson's movie do the same thing? Whether it's out of faith or a strong political belief, I don't think we can hold it against either of them. They made movies, based on reality, to convey a specific message. I don't think it's the sole responsibility of a film maker to make an unbiased movie and make sure that it is understood completely by all who watch it.
A lot of people dislike Michael Moore, but if you're going to criticize him, at least watch his movie. Ok, I understand that you don't want to support it, but now if you rent it you're just giving your money to Blockbuster or your favorite rental store, the movie has already been purchased.
Also, I think there are worse people in the world to hate than Michael Moore. For example, Ken Lay (former CEO of Enron) or Bernard J. Ebbers (former CEO of Worldcom). These are men who ran huge companies in industries crucial to the US, energy and telecommunications. These men lied, ran their companies into the ground and ruined many lives. Dare I say that these people are worse than Michael Moore? YES! How many people did these two men screw over? How many jobs lost? How many retirement funds destroyed? And worse most people don't know their names!
I'd like to say that at least MM was just exercising his freedom of speech, and as far as I know didn't screw anyone over on the way, certainly not to the level of certain CEOs. In conclusion, I don't always care for MM's opinions but there are so many worse evils in the world.
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