Michael Moore and Discrediting Faranheit 911

[election_2004]

Although Faranheit 911 has been getting rave reviews and eye-opening accolades amongst liberal and progressive Americans, it's only a matter of time before the Conservative Spin Machine attempts to discredit Moore's documentary and the information contained therein.

In fact, it's already started.

I myself have not yet seen Faranheit 911 - - but a conservative acquaintance of mine has taken it upon himself to "document" how Moore's film supposedly utilizes "outright lies," with obscured, exaggerated information about George W. Bush.

Go to the following link to read his "exposee" of Michael Moore:

http://forums.philosophysphere.com/Ubb/Forum7/HTML/002504.html

Since I'm not familiar with Michael Moore or Faranheit 911, I cannot really comment on its content. However, I'm sure many of you can, and I would like to invite you to respond in kind to the allegations against Moore and Faranheit 911.

One note: you must register in order to post at the Philosophy Sphere. You can go to the following URL to do so:

http://forums.philosophysphere.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi?action=agree

This is NOT a board controlled by Freepers or Neo-Cons. In fact, most of the board's moderators are very liberal individuals (moreso than the average person's who posts messages there). However, it is not oriented toward progressives the way DU is. The Philosophy Sphere has members who post who espouse all ideologies, from extremely conservative to moderate to extremely liberal - - and everything in-between. Therefore, discussions are usually very diverse in the opinions expressed, and you can even see the sincerity and human sides of the conservatives who post there.

However, it would be nice to have a few more liberal voices in the board's "Point of View" section to balance out the discussion - - as I myself am very moderate, and I can only say so much (that is liberal in nature) to remain true to my own beliefs. I already have my work cut out for my when confronting the myth of "judicial activism" that the conservatives there use to justify the Religious Right's actions.

Plus a large majority of you are probably more familiar with Michael Moore than I am, and I don't feel comfortable regurgitating information that I know nothing about.

I was very disappointed to read the recent trashing of Michael Moore, as I fear it may mislead a lot of the more moderate-to-conservative members, and it may provide Talking Points for Rove & Company regarding the allegations leveled by Moore against the Bush Administration.

P.S. - - This site was originally founded by Eugene W. Roddenberry, the son of Gene Roddenberry, who currently works in the Canadian entertainment industry. Once in a blue moon, Eugene pops in to chat with us.

[amber dog democrat]

1. all the same, it is starting to worry the GOP

No wonder they will want to discredit it.
I'd say definately see it. It raises some very interesting points that are NOT distortions. The ties between the Saudis and the Bush family are one of them.

[wtmusic]

2. this is taken nearly verbatim from another website

and challenges no major point that Moore makes in the film. Doubtful whether your friend even saw it.

[election_2004]

7. He's not my friend...

and I doubt he saw it.

Still, because he's basically pasting the info from Kopel's article, other gullible people (and there are some on the board) are bound to be influenced by it.

I would argue that it's a reflection of the larger gullibility in our society.

[Cha]

3. If F9/11 has Any lies in it ..it's because bush and a cast of

neo-cons have star billing..of course there will be Lies coming outta them..big time!

[Hoping4Change]

4. Direct your friends to Paul Thompson's 911 Timeline.

He documents everything using mainstream news sources. Saudi connection fully documented going back to 1979. No better source.


http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/index.jsp

[Protected]

5. You can't discredit the most painful things in the movie

Such as the video of the President of the United States acting like a child on camera before announcing to the nation and the world that he had started a war in Iraq.

[cyclezealot]

6. I doubt there is any need to discredit any of it.

From what I read, M.Moore hired "Fact Checkers" from the New Yorker" Magazine to act as truth squads, when they are needed.
And more...Moore said any slanderous actions against his movie will be met with legal actions, if necessary..

[monchie]

8. A diarist at Daily Kos has debunked the Kopel list.

Unfortunately, the way Kos's site is laid out, and the way the author used about 8 or 9 separate posts for his debunking, makes it difficult to find. The best way to find it is to google "dailykos 59 deceits" and it'll come up with links to the separate parts. I believe most of the separate parts have links to the other parts.

What it comes down to is that Kopel hasn't managed to come up with a single fact that's wrong, exaggerated, distorted or misrepresented. What he has done is, for the most part, two things: a) used straw man arguments, i.e., misrepresenting, distorting or exaggerating what Moore puts on the screen, then criticizing Moore based on that misrepresentation, distortion, or exaggeration; and b) criticized Moore's opinions as if they were fact.

[monchie]

9. Just found a direct link to the index of the debunking:

It's http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/7/18/173312/462