Stupid White Plagiarizers?
By Brian Carnell
Tuesday, April 16, 2002
In Michael Moore's book, Stupid White Men, he features a list of 48 dubious accomplishments of the Bush administration. The list lacks any footnotes or citations which, as SpinSanity's Ben Fritz put it, "might [lead a reader to] assume that they are accumulated nuggets from Moore's own research."
In fact, as Fritz documented in an article for SpinSanity that also ran on Salon.Com, the list was written by activist Kirsten Selberg for an anti-Bush event that took place in San Francisco on May 19, 2001. The list was then widely distributed on the Internet in various forms.
Moore apparently decided to simply include the list in his book as if it were his own. Selberg tells SpinSanity that she would not have minded Moore using the list, except that the version he used is out of date (and was out of date while he was still writing his book). Selberg told Fritz,
What upset me at first is that Moore and so many others have been repeating this list without bothering to give it the serious update it needs. I don't mind that my work is being used by other people, but I'd like to see it updated and accurate rather than just repeated over and over by people who won't do their own research.
As far as Moore is concerned, however, there are only two important things to know about his book. First, the accuracy or inaccuracy of the book is completely irrelevant. He's writing satire, so he has no obligation at all to make sure anything he says in his book is accurate. Second, the only people who are pointing out inaccuracies in his book are simply jealous that he's on the top of the bestseller list and they're not. Here's a partial transcript of an interview with Moore conducted by Lou Dobbs,
DOBBS: Salon.com just took you to task on this book, pointing out glaring inaccuracies, which -- what in the world...
MOORE: Some of these, I think they found some guy named Dan was named Dave, and there was another thing. But you know, look, this is a book of political humor. So, I mean, I don't respond to that sort of stuff, you know.
DOBBS: Glaring inaccuracies?
MOORE: No, I don't. Why should I? How can there be inaccuracy in comedy? You know.
DOBBS: That does give one license. I think you may have given all of us a loophole.
MOORE: When Jonathan Swift said that what the Irish do is eat their young, in other words, that's what the British were proposing during the famine, I think that, you know, you have to understand satire.
DOBBS: It was metaphorical. And when you say that president...
MOORE: Well, your point was that Salon and others are like liberals, so why would they -- actually, the only attacks on the book have come from liberals.
DOBBS: Is that right?
MOORE: Yes.
DOBBS: Perhaps that's because, again, just dealing with what they know.
MOORE: Yes, maybe. Or maybe they're just -- some people get a little jealous. That's what you do. "How come he's on TV? He's on Lou Dobbs! What's going on?"
DOBBS: And it's selling well?
MOORE: It's been the No. 1 book in the country for the last month. How is that, at a time when supposedly there's 80 percent approval ratings for George W. Bush?
DOBBS: That's pretty good. And that's the next question I had for you. A couple things...
MOORE: That's my question for you. Why do you think it is? I don't have the answer.
DOBBS: Well, I will hardly pretend to be an expert.
MOORE: How could this be the No. 1 book? It's selling more than Grisham and Clancy right now, at a time when supposedly everybody's behind Bush. And this is nothing but a scathing attack on who he is, what he stands for and what he's done to the country.
DOBBS: Filled with glaring inaccuracies.
MOORE: Filled with glaring, comedic inaccuracies. And actually written by sweatshop workers in Honduras. Has that been pointed out yet? I think we might as well reveal all right now.
This is, of course, a well-worn Moore tactic. He responded to critics of his previous book with much the same retort -- it is comedy and so he has no obligation to fact check.
This is an absurd claim, but if Moore really believes this, why does he not simply ask his publishers to include a warning label on the dust jacket of his books indicating that the facts in the book may or may not be true and that no attempt has been made to do even a minimal verification of Moore's claims. Then Moore would not have to face such tough questions and criticism of his books.
Source:
Moore Problems. Ben Fritz, SpinSanity.Com, April 10, 2002.
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