Moore Vineyards
Produces a fine whine:
“I make movies that point out larger truths … about what’s happening in this country and the world in which we live, and I have to then suffer through an onslaught of attack,” Moore said. “At some point, I’m wondering, when do I get to catch a break?”
A federal appeals court in Boston has agreed with Moore that Peter Damon of Brockton, Mass., was not defamed by Moore’s clever cut-and-paste job that made it appear as though Damon was complaining that he had been abandoned by the U.S. military and the Bush administration, when in fact he was complaining about the pain of his war-related injuries. Damon lost both his arms in when a helicopter tire exploded as he was repairing it. Moore can’t catch a break, but he did make $100 million and counting from his film, which was full of logic like this:
Moore said the unanimous decision was total vindication, and noted the three-judge panel included two judges appointed by President George W. Bush. Moore said years of failed lawsuits against his films show his movies are accurate.
Actually, it just shows we have very broad freedom of speech in this country, which protects even conniving jackasses, that freedom of speech apparently has not been subverted by the Bush administration at all, and that defamation and libel are not easy to prove. Though I bet Moore would not have faired so well in front of a jury of his peers.
“I did not defame this soldier and would not,” Moore said. “My heart goes out to him. My prayers are with him and with all soldiers who have suffered from this war. That was the point of the film.”
I thought the point of the film was to make loads of money off a cheap Bush-bash, with lots of contrived gotchas and ahas. But whatever. Here’s what Peter Damon actually wants to say about the Iraq war. Via his lawyer, Philip Moran, who is mulling taking a run at the U.S. Supreme Court with this:
Moran said Damon believes the Iraq war is a “just war.”
That would be a smaller truth. By the way, if you follow the link above to that AP story, you’ll see Moore gets to blab at length about larger truths, how justified he is and how injured he has been before you get to that last bit about how Damon actually feels. Here’s the logic of the court:
“There is no reason to believe that a reasonable member of the military or veteran community would conclude that Damon’s appearance in the documentary conveyed a defamatory meaning, and therefore lowered his reputation or subjected him to scorn, hatred, ridicule or contempt in that community,” according to the court’s March 21 ruling.
I’m going to guess that was written by people with arms. The only way entirely misrepresenting someone’s position, on purpose, about something that cost that person his arms, to make him appear to be saying something abhorrent to him, could possibly not be defamatory would be if it was satire. Cruel, heartless satire, but satire. By the way, at last check Moore had not posted anything on this at his website. Unclear whether this is because he actually does have a sense of shame, and decided gloating over successfully pantsing the armless GI was a bad idea, or if it is because he is collapsed in a hotdog-induced stupor somewhere. I’m going with the latter, seeing as he hasn’t managed to update the “Mike’s letter” feature since Monday, and he clearly is nursing a deep sense of injury over the armless GI’s effrontery.
Re Fatty Bolder’s observation in comments: No kidding.
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