Posted on 07/02/2004 7:41:17 AM PDT by Sloth
As many of you will recall, Fred Barnes recently wrote a column titled "Michael Moore and Me" denying an incident that Moore described in his book Stupid White Men. Barnes' article can be seen here. Barnes denies that the conversation ever even took place. I was prompted by another FR thread to make the following comparison.
Moore's account in Stupid White Men is reproduced below:
On this particular Sunday morning, perhaps as punishment for not being at Mass, I was forced to listen [on The McLaughlin Group] to magazine columnist Fred Barnes (now an editor at the right-wing Weekly Standard and co-host of the Fox News show The Beltway Boys) whine on and on about the sorry state of American education, blaming the teachers and their evil union for why students are doing so poorly.
"These kids don't even know what The Iliad and The Odyssey are!" he bellowed, as the other panelists nodded in admiration at Fred's noble lament.
The next morning, I called Fred Barnes at his Washington office. "Fred," I said, "tell me what The Iliad and The Odyssey are."
He started hemming and hawing, "Well, they're ... uh ... you know ... uh ... okay, fine, you got me--I don't know what they are. Happy now?"
Now, contrast this with Michael Moore's original January 1988 account of his call to Fred Barnes here. I have transcribed the entire article below:
BACK TO BASICS
In December, William Bennett, Secretary of Education (a department Reagan vowed to abolish eight years ago), issued an edict stating his vision of the "ideal high school." The curriculum for this hypothetical "James Madison High" was dominated by required courses in classic Greek and English literature, in addition to studying foreign languages and the history of Western civilization.
On the January 2 edition of "The McLaughlin Report" host John McLaughlin asked panelist Fred Barnes of the New Republic how he felt about Bennett's insistence that these be required subjects in America's high schools.
"Great idea!" replied Barnes. "Absolutely!"
Struck by his enthusiasm for the classics, I decided to call Barnes and ask him to share his personal knowledge of two well-known works, "The Iliad" by Homer and Dante's "Inferno."
Barnes began by reiterating that these books are "what everybody ought to learn. They're easy to read."
So I gave him a pop quiz.
Who was Dante's guide through the Inferno? I asked.
"I don't know," Barnes replied. "I oughta know this. I never read it."
Who was Aristotle's most famous pupil?
"Plato," said Barnes.
Wrong. It was Alexander the Great.
Growing distraught, Barnes noted he "was now batting 0 for 2."
Who killed Achilles?
"I don't remember. I know Achilles killed Hector (true)"
"It was Paris," I told him.
"OK," said Barnes, calling an end to the test. "I guess you may be able to come up with a strong case of hypocrisy. You can say, 'what a hypocrite,' and maybe so, but that still doesn't mean that [Bennett's] curriculum isn't a good idea. Besides, what better have they (the students) got to study?"
Fred Barnes, report to the principal's office.
So, even assuming that the 1988 account is completely accurate, Moore completely fabricated the quotes he uses in Stupid White Men. Barnes acknowledges that while he knows Achilles killed Hector, he can't remember who killed Achilles -- and Moore quotes Barnes as saying that he doesn't even know what the Odyssey & Iliad are. That's about par for the course when it comes to Moore's integrity these days.
It's not suprising that Barnes would deny ever receiving a call from Moore -- there'd be no reason for him to remember it. In 1988, Moore name-making documentary Roger & Me wouldn't even come out for another year. He was just some unknown fat dork from Michigan. Now he is a famous fat dork from France, having discarded whatever measure of honesty he had in the past.
Pinging respondents to the other thread.
The backlash against Michael Moore continues.
Personally, it restores a bit of faith for me.
When is Ray Bradbury, going to get compensation , for Michael Moore uses the title of his book ,Farenheit 415, without permission.
Well, He is laughing all the way to the bank.
I've been thinking about writing "It Takes a Village" and "My Life".
I shall select my nome de plume with care to optimize sales.
Shouldn't there be a transcript from the appearance? If not, roll the tape.
Farenheit 451 - not 415 - A typo I suppose.
BTW the temperature associated with 451 degrees Farenheit is the temperature at which paper begins spontaneous combustion - hence the book title.
Bradbury wants to give him a chance to change the title. But since that will never happen, nothing will happen until he takes That Fat Idiot to court.
What are the odds that Michael Moore looked up these factoids before he called Fred Barnes? He doesn't look like a well-educated guy to me. Probably he consulted the Cliff's Notes on the Iliad and the Odyssey before he called.
Fred Barnes may not have known who Dante's guide was or who killed Achilles--which is frankly shameful. But the shame belongs more to his schoolteachers than to Fred. There was a time in America when even illiterates knew who Hamlet and Achilles were, and knew the basic facts about them. No longer. Now most kids probably read "A Separate Peace," "Lord of the Flies," and "To Kill a Mockingbird" and never come within a mile of the Iliad.
Mr. Bradbury doesn't want compensation, he doesn't like seeing his book co-opted by a political hack.
RB doesn't want compensation, he just wants his title back claiming that his book was not political and MM's use of the term in a politically motivated manner is not proper.
You assume (A) that public school students are still taught to read, and (B) that public schools still teach books written by dead white males.
If the complaint is that schools don't teach basics, how is it that if I don't know the basics, that disputes the point?
Maybe Barnes should have asked Moore WHY Achilleus killed Hector or who were the three people in the bottommost ring of Dante's Hell.
Moore is an idiot using trivia questions to attack a basically correct premise - that most American students who live in a society which is the product of essentially four thousand years of Western Culture & Middle Eastern Culture/North African Culture know very little of where that society came from and why.
Which is the reason Idiot Liberals like Moore make sense to them.
Note also that a foreign language emphasis would seem to counteract what Moore claims is our arrogant national blindness to whatever happens outside our borders.
...............and Krispy Kreme!!
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