Michael Moore's crockumentary
Peter Foster
National Post
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
A couple of months ago, when Michael Moore, the American Super-Sized self-publicist and maker of left-wing "crockumentaries," revealed that Disney was refusing to distribute his rabidly anti-George Bush film, Fahrenheit 9/11, I suggested that it would have been wonderful if Disney had had the guts to say, "We decided not to distribute this film because it is such flagrantly biased crap." A reader rightly took me to task for having made such a statement without seeing the film. On Monday night, I had a chance to rectify that mistake. One additional reason for viewing the film while waiting for the election results was that Mr. Moore -- and fellow radical Ralph Nader -- had both last week weighed in on the Canadian election, suggesting that Canadians should avoid a Conservative government at all costs.
Now I must admit that I've had a soft spot for Mr. Nader ever since the votes he pulled away from Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential election helped keep the Dems out of the White House. However, I find Michael Moore's attempted interference much harder to take, particularly after seeing Fahrenheit 9/11.
I now freely admit that "flagrantly biased crap" was a severe understatement.
The film is a paranoid pastiche designed to prove -- among other dark deeds -- that: George Bush "stole" the 2000 election; went on holiday until the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center; hustled a bunch of Osama bin Laden's relatives out of the country while all other flights were grounded; had business links with the bin Ladens and the Saudis more generally that warped U.S. foreign policy; and was determined to pin 9/11 on the poor innocent Saddam Hussein, who represented no threat to America.
Any really Big Lie has to have some basis in truth. Certainly there was a horrendous lack of co-ordination in U.S. intelligence in the months leading up to 9/11; certainly the Bush family did have links to the bin Ladens and other prominent Saudis; certainly no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. Nor is there any doubt that innocent people were killed during the U.S.-led invasion, or that big U.S. companies -- including veep Dick Cheney's old company, Halliburton -- have received contracts for Iraqi reconstruction.
But to seek to cut and splice these "facts" into an allegedly seamless plot by the Bush family and their fellow plutocrats to hijack U.S. foreign policy for personal gain is contemptible.
Mr. Moore has already come under withering fire for his film, most notably from Christopher Hitchens. Writing on Slate.com, Mr. Hitchens described the movie as "a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness." Mr. Hitchens demolishes Mr. Moore's misleading images and warped arguments with laser-guided precision. He pours particular scorn on the notion that Iraq has never represented any kind of threat to Americans. He also reminds us that although Saddam may have had no WMDs, it certainly wasn't for want of trying. Saddam had been negotiating with North Korea's barmy nuke-jockey Kim Jong-il for a missile system.
Obviously the period of Iraqi reconstruction has been enormously difficult, and it would be naive to expect a rapid or easy transition to democracy. But the notion that this is all some greed-based plot devoid of ethical motivation or realpolitikal rationale is ludicrous. The problem is that it is much easier to believe Moore's facile interpretation than to take the time and trouble to analyze the issue. It is particularly easy for those of soft-left and anti-American bent, which brings us back to Canada and last Monday.
Stephen Harper's original support for a Canadian presence in Iraq, but subsequent campaign waffling, hurt him, contributing to his caricature both as a "rabid" right-winger and a holder of "hidden agendas." It would have hurt him particularly among the crowd of typical Greater Torontonians in the theatre where I watched the movie on Monday night. A coalition of the smug, they included some who couldn't resist the urge to say -- out loud and indignantly -- things like "Jesus. Can you believe it?" every time a new "revelation" about the Bush family appeared on the screen. They applauded lustily at the end.
The bad news is that the movie is doing boffo box office, setting all kinds of records for a documentary release. The good news is that Christopher Hitchens represents only the first wave of critical bombing. There are already Web sites devoted to debunking Mr. Moore, such as Moorelies.com. There will also be a film festival in Texas later this year devoted to films such as Michael Moore Hates America. Then there is the imminent release of a book called Michael Moore is a Big Fat Stupid White Male, by co-authors David Hardy and Jason Clarke, who accuse Moore of "serial mendacity."
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