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Michael Moore a victim of his own success
The Independent ^ | 11/16/05 | JANET STREET-PORTER

Posted on 11/16/2005 11:05:45 AM PST by Millee

Whatever happened to Michael Moore, the man who told us his mission in life was to stop President Bush from getting re-elected? The man who loathed Bush so much he spent millions of dollars making a film, "Fahrenheit 9/11," the main purpose of which was to discredit the president. The man who went on national television and relentlessly toured the United States begging people to vote the Republicans out of office. Moore never missed an opportunity to ram home the fact that he sought nothing less than total humiliation for Dubya.

But since Bush was returned to the White House, Moore has been strangely silent. Obviously, he found the result extremely unpalatable and Moore is not someone who likes to lose an argument. Apart from launching a film festival in a remote part of Michigan a couple of months ago, he seems to have vanished into thin air. There were stories that he'd been shacked up at a Florida fat farm trying to lose weight. There were rumors that he's toured New Orleans after Katrina, but reading his Web site, it's clear that while keen to rally support for the homeless and jobless, he was not actually there in person.

Now a new book, "Do As I Say (Not As I Do) -- Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy," by the right-wing commentator Peter Schweizer, criticizes Moore for not living up to the high moral standards he claims to espouse. The author, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, went through publicly available IRS documents to discover that Moore's foundation bought shares in some of the companies he has spent a career in the media attacking.

Not just a few shares either. Don't forget Moore has always said he doesn't own any stock and doesn't have a broker. But his foundation owns tens of thousands of shares in Boeing, Sonoco, Eli Lilly and Halliburton, the same defense company that "Fahrenheit 9/11" attacked for making huge profits out of rebuilding such countries as Afghanistan and Iraq after U.S. military intervention.

Even more damaging, try logging on to the Name the Hypocrite Web site and read claims that Moore, who says conservatives are racist because they don't support affirmative action, has managed to employ only three black people out of a work force of 135 working on his books, television shows and radio projects. Moore, who says Americans who live in white neighborhoods are racist, has lived for the past seven years in a waterfront home in Central Lake, Mich., a community of 2,600 residents. The 2000 Census records that the number of black people living there is zero.

Fourteen months ago, I wrote "he makes politics seem as exciting as a ball game, as partisan and one-dimensional as a comic. He aims so low it's extraordinary." Even so, I have always saluted Moore's achievements as a communicator, putting complicated subjects across to the mass audience. I commented that denigrating Moore because he distorted the truth in his movies and books was missing the point, and if every major politician was judged on how often he got his facts right Bush, Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac would have been impeached and removed from office years ago.

Over the past year, however, Moore has not only got richer than in his wildest dreams, but his celebrity status has meant that he now mingles with the glitterati. Stories of his giant ego and huge tantrums abound, but how many were manufactured by those on the right fearful of his influence? I decided to go to the United States and make a documentary about how the champion of the underdog has morphed into one of the creatures he originally so despised.

Now Moore is more unapproachable than the pope, more obsessed with his own security than Elton John. There's a dangerous gap between the Moore of myth and the reality. For a moment during the presidential campaign, it seemed as if he sought public office as a way of cleansing the system and achieving a fairer redistribution of wealth in his country. But many would argue by taking on Bush in such a heavy-handed way, he actually helped his arch enemy win, galvanizing wavering Republicans to turn out and vote.

Meanwhile, Moore alienates everyone who has to work with him (outside his small trusted team) by imposing demands that make Mariah Carey seem like a reasonable woman.

In my film, I discover just how appallingly he behaved during his British tour, ordering pizzas and stuffing himself while the audience waited for him to go on stage. Refusing to meet a woman who knew his mom, who'd come from his home town and baked him an apple pie. Crowing on the phone in the interval to his mate in New York about the fact that Vanessa Redgrave and Bianca Jagger were in the audience, while the public waited for him to entertain them. The same man who did a deal with two of the poorest people in his film "Roger and Me" whereby they earned a measly $100, while he made millions.

In the end, I conclude that Moore is a victim of his own success, with a lot more in common with Bush than he would care to admit. He's said to be planning a film about medical insurance in the States but, with his track record, shouldn't it carry a healthy warning?


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: fatsocialistweasel; lumpyreifenstahl; michaelmoore; susbarbatus
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Michael Moore a hypocrit???? I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you! ((snicker))
1 posted on 11/16/2005 11:05:46 AM PST by Millee
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To: Millee

May he choke on a ham sandwich. Although, can you imagine the size of the ham sandwich it would take? Hell, that's a whole PIG!!!


2 posted on 11/16/2005 11:07:03 AM PST by StrangerInParadise (This tagline has been reported stolen. If you see it, call BR-549..........)
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To: StrangerInParadise


About to say something vicious....

"There were stories that he'd been shacked up at a Florida fat farm trying to lose weight."

I did hear that starvation in Africa was down. Maybe now they have enough to eat?


3 posted on 11/16/2005 11:10:59 AM PST by Tzimisce
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To: Millee

MM hasn't been the same since he got Democratic Convention box seats from Jimmuh Carter.


4 posted on 11/16/2005 11:11:22 AM PST by Semper Paratus
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To: Millee
I think he came to Texas one to many times

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
5 posted on 11/16/2005 11:12:03 AM PST by PaulaB
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To: Millee
"...vanished into thin air..."

Is that like in the movie "Team America" where he "self explodes" by eating to many hot dogs ???
6 posted on 11/16/2005 11:12:38 AM PST by forYourChildrenVote4Bush (Democrats need to shower)
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To: StrangerInParadise

HE COULDN'T EAT A WHOLE PIG... THAT WOULD BE CANNIBALISM.


7 posted on 11/16/2005 11:12:41 AM PST by Old Seadog (Inside every old person is a young person saying "WTF happened?".)
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To: StrangerInParadise
Hell, that's a whole PIG!!!

Yes, but if there is any justice the pig would then enjoy an idyllic afterlife accompanied by 72 virgins.

8 posted on 11/16/2005 11:13:53 AM PST by rogue yam
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To: Tzimisce

"There were stories that he'd been shacked up at a Florida fat farm trying to lose weight."

Do you think he is getting any????

Pass the peanut butter and the dog....


9 posted on 11/16/2005 11:14:07 AM PST by forYourChildrenVote4Bush (Democrats need to shower)
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To: StrangerInParadise

I enjoyed the book "Michael Moore is a Big Fat Stupid White Man". Here was my review of it on amazon.com:

"Hardy and Clarke give great examples of how Moore manipulates the truth through ignoring facts that don't help his case, deceptive editing, and his aw-shucks Midwest persona. His films aren't really documentaries; they're one-sided opinion pieces that "preach to the choir" of conspiracy theorists. The authors point out that when others challenge this writer/filmmaker, he attacks them instead of trying to defend his allegations.

Issued right in time for Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" film, which many may see as gospel truth. Perhaps this is also preaching to the choir-- how many Moore
fans will buy this? But maybe liberals should check this out, a work that's helping to keep Moore honest. Shining the light on Moore's methods has helped to balance his opinions; and also it led to changed narration on the DVD version of "Columbine", for example, where Moore had to admit that Willie Horton did NOT kill again, despite his claim in the original movie.
Good for the fact-checkers!


10 posted on 11/16/2005 11:15:07 AM PST by raccoonradio
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To: forYourChildrenVote4Bush
Is that like in the movie "Team America" where he "self explodes" by eating to many hot dogs ???
No, he was a suicide bomber. Trey and Matt filled the puppet with ham before they blew it up.

-Eric

11 posted on 11/16/2005 11:15:57 AM PST by E Rocc
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To: raccoonradio

12 posted on 11/16/2005 11:16:20 AM PST by raccoonradio
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To: Millee
But many would argue by taking on Bush in such a heavy-handed way, he actually helped his arch enemy win, galvanizing wavering Republicans to turn out and vote.

I'd say that was more due to his going aroud the world telling everyone how dumb his fellow citizens are, and then having his Dem friends invite him to the National Convention.

13 posted on 11/16/2005 11:16:31 AM PST by A Ruckus of Dogs
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To: Millee
I'm so glad that we don't have to worry about whether or not the lying clown will have any effect on W's reelection.
14 posted on 11/16/2005 11:16:48 AM PST by AxelPaulsenJr (Pray Daily For Our Troops and President Bush and the SAPPS)
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To: Millee
he seems to have vanished into thin air.

He seems to have vanished into fat air...

15 posted on 11/16/2005 11:16:59 AM PST by frogjerk (LIBERALISM - Being miserable for no good reason)
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To: Millee

A victim of his success? He's a liberal of course he's a victim.


16 posted on 11/16/2005 11:17:43 AM PST by ocr1
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To: PaulaB

I love the way you Texans problem solve!


17 posted on 11/16/2005 11:17:49 AM PST by Millee ("Life is just one damned thing after another" - Elbert Hubbard)
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To: Millee

"...he seems to have vanished into thin air."

Can't use the word 'thin' in context with Michael Moore.


18 posted on 11/16/2005 11:19:23 AM PST by bk1000 (A clear conscience is a sure sign of a poor memory)
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To: StrangerInParadise

May he choke on a bowel-burger au jus!


19 posted on 11/16/2005 11:19:41 AM PST by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ("Don't touch that thing")
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To: Millee

I did see the two rebuttal films concerning this pigs piece of fiction a while back. Last week, I saw a bit of Moore's actual work on HBO.

OMG, I had to shut the TV off. That thing was even more of an abomination than I was led to believe.

Michael Moore is simply a vile and completely shameless human being.


20 posted on 11/16/2005 11:19:51 AM PST by Radix (Wishful Thinking: A Tag Line Field which actually contains enough places to complete a serious thou)
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