"Fahrenheit 9/11" critics turn up heat
seattletimes.nwsource.com
By Anthony Breznican
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - While the White
House and the Republican National
Committee have taken an official "no
comment" approach to Michael Moore
and his new anti-Bush documentary
"Fahrenheit 9/11," some conservatives
have mobilized a letter-writing campaign
and crafted ads that slam the film and
its maker.
"Fahrenheit 9/11," which won the top
prize at the Cannes Film Festival,
attacks President Bush's rationale for
the war in Iraq and accuses him and his
administration of manipulating the Sept.
11, 2001, attacks and fostering fear for
political gain.
The film will be shown at two New York
theaters starting Wednesday before
opening next Friday on at least 500
screens nationwide. It's scheduled to
expand to hundreds more in coming
weeks.
One of the organizations rallying against Moore is Move America Forward, a
pro-Bush group that evolved months ago from the letter-writing campaign
that led CBS to drop its controversial TV movie "The Reagans."
The group has received several thousand e-mails of support for its Moore
campaign, said executive director Siobhan Guiney, a former Republican
lobbyist. But she did not know how many were sent to the various theater
chains.
"Since we are the customers of the American movie theatres, it is important
for us to speak up loudly and tell the industry executives that we don't want
this misleading and grotesque movie being shown at our local cinema," the
group says on its Web site, above a listing of phone numbers and e-mails
for various cinema companies.
Said Guiney: "(Moore) is critical of what's happening right now, and there's
no problem with being critical - but his movie is not a documentary, it's a
piece of propaganda."
However, Move America Forward's letters about "Fahrenheit 9/11" haven't
changed anything so far.
"There has been some communication, but not an overwhelming amount.
And we do intend to play the film," said Dick Westerling, spokesman for the
theater chain Regal Entertainment Group, which has 6,020 screens in the
United States.
Move America Forward is funded through private donations, not the Bush
campaign or the Republican National Committee, Guiney said.
Who is behind the group?
Howard Kaloogian is
the chairman, a
former California
Assemblyman who
helped organize the
Gray Davis recall
campaign and made
a failed bid for the
Republican
nomination to the
Senate.
And who is behind
Moore?
On e of the
filmmaker's press
strategists is
brass-knuckles
political operative Chris Lehane, a former press secretary to Vice President
Al Gore and frequent Democratic aide who worked on the presidential
campaigns of Sen. John Kerry and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark. Lehane
earned a reputation in 2000 for gathering information on political enemies
and bringing it to reporters.
Neither Lehane nor Moore would comment for this story.
Another independent conservative group, Citizens United, is crafting
television and Internet ads that slam Moore.
The group's head, David Bossie, is a former Republican congressional aide
who was one of President Clinton's harshest critics. He was fired in 1998 by
then-Speaker Newt Gingrich for withholding the public release of testimony
transcripts favorable to the Clintons in a campaign fund-raising probe.
Bossie said the ads would target Moore and George Soros, the billionaire
philanthropist who donated nearly $13 million to various groups seeking to
defeat Bush.
"Look, this guy (Moore) is simply producing and advertising this movie at
this time to try to affect the election," Bossie said. "And so clearly
organizations like mine ... it seems to be left to us to make sure that the
media is educated, as well as the American people are educated, as to just
what they're up to."
The liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org is trying to counter the conservative
campaign with mass mailings asking members to "pledge to bring their
friends, relatives and neighbors" to "Fahrenheit 9/11" on opening night.
Supporters also are sending letters to theaters on Move America Forward's
list, urging them not to give in to pressure to block the film.
"My guess is that their efforts will backfire and only rally support for the film,
which will be terrific as far as I'm concerned," said Tom Ortenberg, president
of Lions Gate Films, which is distributing the movie. "We need less
censorship in this country, not more."
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