Posted on 05/19/2004 7:45:48 AM PDT by Sir Gawain
CANNES, France -- Two questions involving the duration of events: (1) So how long, exactly, was the standing ovation for Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11"? And (2) Did President Bush actually remain in a Florida classroom, reading from My Pet Goat, for seven minutes after he was informed of the second attack on the World Trade Center?
Moore's anti-Bush documentary was received rapturously at its black-tie screening here Monday, and a friend told me the ovation lasted 25 minutes. In my report I suggested that Cannes ovations, like the estimates of parade crowds in Chicago, have a tendency to be exaggerated. Since I attended an 8 a.m. press screening, I was not inside the Palais des Festivals to clock it myself.
Now I have another source. The ovation lasted 20 minutes, according to Variety, which may be correct, because its reporters all carry stopwatches to check the running times of movies.
In any event it was "the longest ovation in the history of the festival," according to Thierry Fremaux, the festival's director. At a party Monday evening, I asked Moore. "It depends on when you start counting," he said. "Do you start with the beginning of the closing credits or when the lights go up? When they just wouldn't stop clapping, I walked out and they kept applauding in the lobby."
And as for Bush's delay in reacting to the attack on the World Trade Center? Conventional wisdom has it that the president was reading to schoolchildren when he got the news and quickly left the room.
The Moore version: He was informed of the first attack, went into the room anyway, was informed of the second attack, and remained with the students until a staff member suggested that he leave.
"The teacher in that Sarasota classroom happened to tape the whole event," Moore told me. "We'd seen other footage from the networks, but it was all edited. She just left the camera running. She said nobody had ever asked her for the film. Bush didn't instinctively jump up and go into action, but just stayed on autopilot until someone told him what to do."
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
Barf alert implied.
Ebert has lost some weight but he's still as much of a pig as Moore.
Originally, I heard that the first plane that impacted the WTC was thought to be a small plane.
Oh and like the teacher's tape couldn't have been edited too. These will be the same folks who will say someone doctored Clinton's Bin Laden confession, just watch.
What he didn't do was startle the children there. Can you imagine being a little tyke there, seeing a guy whisper something into the President of the United States ear, and then watch him make a mad dash for the exits.
The best punishment for these people is just to vote Bush in for another 4 years.
Take that, Cannes.
Excellent. Let the democrat partisan vitriol surge forth.
Moore is helping to polarize left from right in America, and apparently, Europe.
This is not, in my opinion, a bad thing.
A priveledged American fanning the fires of hatred for a strong America? Perfect! Pugsly Moore becoming a democrat figurehead? I couldn't WRITE a more delicious scenario. Twenty minute elite ovation for a naive college-politics hit piece on the president? Bravo!
If ignorant citizens are finally taking a stand behind Moore, they will at least be engaged in the culture war. The right can now reach them. They were invisible as long as they watched TV sitcoms and refused to follow politics, now they are stirred by a fat charlatan socialist who will make an easy target.
I love the smell of charred liberal ideology in the morning!
Dang it. That's supposed to be a haiku. I forgot to put the "br" after the second line...
I've seen the video...Moore is right on this one.
Ebert and Moore both need to shut up.
So the President, when informed of a crisis, took note and continued what he was doing until he got more information. BFD.
Clinton would've had to finish things off in the sink before reacting.
Although the FAA might have had more information than the press did about the exact status of the four hijacked jets, until the first one hit the WTC the rule was to get them landed and negotiate with the hijackers. There were 18 minutes from the first tower being hit until the second one was hit. Even if the Air Force was instructed at 8:45 to shoot down the other hijacked jets, I doubt that anything could have been done to stop the second crash at 9:03.
That's kind of how I picture the Devil to look...
Don't you think his "duty" to the nation after the first plane hit was just a little bit more important than the "feelings" of a few school kids?
Very impressive. The French usually stand that long only when they're surrendering.
When I first heard a plane had crashed into the WTC, my first thought was something like the July 28, 1945 incident where a US bomber in the fog hit the Empire State building, not hijacking/terrorism.
If Teddy Kennedy had been there, he probably would have packed all the kids into a car and driven it off a bridge.
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