Posted on 10/17/2003 12:23:32 AM PDT by garmonbozia
Filmmaker getting warmer reception than on Oscar night
Something has shifted in the way Americans view the war in Iraq, filmmaker and author Michael Moore said before a speech Wednesday night in Denver.
"You can feel it, can't you? It's a different time," Moore said at a news conference before speaking to a crowd of 7,200 people at the Ritchie Center on the University of Denver campus.
Moore compared his reception in Denver this week with the reaction he drew at the Academy Awards earlier this year. Back then, his criticism of President Bush while accepting an Oscar for the film Bowling for Columbine brought down booing and catcalls from the balcony.
"I mean, to compare the week after the Oscars with the walk I just took down the 16th Street Mall - wow! It was like night and day," Moore said.
What's changed, Moore maintained, is the average American's confidence in Bush's handling of the ongoing occupation in Iraq and the costs associated with supporting it.
Although Moore drew a warm reception from Wednesday night's audience, his entourage was considerably more security-conscious than the average author's on a book tour. Four security guards in suits stood at each corner of the stage.
And while his popularity, in terms of book sales and movie revenues, has prospered, Moore conceded that he paid a personal price for his outspoken criticism during the Oscar ceremony.
"Personally it was very difficult," he said. "I had to endure a lot of threats of violence and harassment . . . my home was vandalized. There's a part of me that regretted saying anything because I put my family in jeopardy."
But Moore struck a more ebullient tone once he reached the stage.
He poked fun at the news media for what he termed as "marginalizing" liberals such as himself.
To make his point, he took a cell phone and dialed Fox News in New York in an unsuccessful attempt to speak with conservative commentator Sean Hannity.
"Just tell him it's Michael Moore," he told the operator, who replied that there was no one there to take the call.
Moore had better luck with KUSA-TV when he called to complain that none of Denver's television stations had bothered to cover his speech.
A staffer on the assignment desk told Moore that the station had decided not to cover the event, but declined to discuss their reasons why.
"It's not something that I'm prepared to discuss with you, Mr. Moore," the staffer told him.
Before hanging up on the station, Moore suggested that he isn't as newsworthy because he isn't a 7-foot tall famous basketball player charged with rape, alluding to the Kobe Bryant case in Eagle.
"It's not that I want to be on TV," he later told the crowd, "it's just that your fellow Coloradans shouldn't feel like they're alone," he said. "There are millions and millions of us, and we have been marginalized by the media."
There's local television news in Denver?!
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