tsujigiri

The editorial comments of Chris and James, covering the news, science, religion, politics and culture.

"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." -Douglas Adams

Saturday, June 26, 2004

Unfairenheit 9/11 - The lies of Michael Moore.

Writing for Slate, Christopher Hitchens provides an excellent case-study on the typically pathological writing style of conservative authors. I went searching for rebuttals to Michael Moore's "Farhenheit 911," and this is what I found. As usual, I have almost no inkling what this guy is getting at, and I don't have the time to try and mine the substance out of his overloaded language:
Unfairenheit 9/11 - The lies of Michael Moore. By Christopher Hitchens: One of the many problems with the American left, and indeed of the American left, has been its image and self-image as something rather too solemn, mirthless, herbivorous, dull, monochrome, righteous, and boring. How many times, in my old days at The Nation magazine, did I hear wistful and semienvious ruminations? [snip] Nonetheless, it seems that an answer to this long-felt need is finally beginning to emerge. I exempt Al Franken's unintentionally funny Air America network, to which I gave a couple of interviews in its early days. There, one could hear the reassuring noise of collapsing scenery and tripped-over wires and be reminded once again that correct politics and smooth media presentation are not even distant cousins.
I often try to find serious criticism of Moore's films, and this is the kind of nonsensical garbage that I consistently get. What the hell is this guy talking about, and why do I even care? I don't care. I only care about this statement: "The Lies of Michael Moore." Does no one in this post-9-11 world care about brief, clear statements? Does this author get paid by the word or something? I don't have the patience to wade through this whole piece of crap article. If somebody else has time, would you please condense the article for me and provide clear, concise answers to the following question:
What are the factual claims made in the film, by Michael Moore, which are false? In what way are they false, and what corrections would be appropriate?
Please help me, I just hate long-winded trash. I also hate the human-thesaurus routine. I scored almost perfect on my verbal GRE, but you don't see me shoving my much-learned academy-cock in the reader's face. In the analysis of Fahrenheit 911, I dont want to see any of the following:
  • Generalizations about "liberals."
  • Critiques of the motives of Michael Moore.
  • Critiques of statements made by Moore, other than those made in the film.
  • Speculation about what Moore/liberals "would have said" about Bush/whomever, if they had done XYZ differently.
  • Any statements about Bill Clinton
Just the facts, please. And one last remark: there may in fact be some facts which could alter interpretations of the events in the film. We can all come up with facts that, according to us, should have been included. But omission of such information from a two-hour film does not amount to a "lie." A lie is a statement which is false.

1 Comments:

At 12/4/04, 9:54 PM, Blogger lateshoes said...

word! hey chris, this is lars posting as tracy because it's easier than changing the default login.

i've come across this kind of horseshit a lot whilst trying to find a good critique of farenheit 9/11. invariably the critics toss out the predictable knuckleballs they've been using against moore since the beginning: "he's partisan!" "he's fat!" "he engages in half-truth!" "his documentaries have...(audible shudder) a point of view!". (the most egregious use of the "he's fat" line of reasoning wasn't greg beacham's review of bowling for columbine, but was, in fact, the billboard in utah county: "michael moore, high in cholesterol, low in truth".)

the issue of partisanship would be damning if moore would actually display some type of party loyalty. i seem to recall criticism of democratic leadership in all of moore's books and films. tom daschle didn't come across terribly well in f9/11, and daschle clearly didn't get his base out this year. but, of course, the new booger-man under the bed of the democratic party is the "values" voter, so i suppose the base is no longer important.

on to half-truths. tracy and i watched the entirety (85 minutes give or take a week) of "farenHYPE 9/11" and found that there are two kinda-sorta-truth-stretchy things: the newspaper headline about florida recounts was taken from a website and doctored to look like it came from a printed source. (nevermind the brave souls who took down dan rather, for in pursuit of satan, fake news is fine and dandy.) secondly, moore fails to point out that several big-time dems are involved in the carlyle group, while condemning the bush family's ties. (thirdly, but without any real proof, we are told that the figures stated about saudi investment in america were overstated.) the rest of this interminable movie consists of ron silver, yes that ron silver, and dick "clinton era axe-grinder" morris fulminating about how we should all shut up and follow orders (that usually works out well) bracketed by people claiming that their words were used out of context by moore. some of these people almost have a point, but mostly they seem uncomfortable with how much attention the movie recieved. best of all, some of these are people that i don't remember being in a movie i saw thrice.

the issues of obesity and p.o.v. are too stupid to address.

chris hitchens is disappointing to me. his literary criticism is so sharp (if assholish) that his knee-jerk political "observations" suggest some type of personal vendetta: liberals keep selling him bad coke? (his tv appearances would support this or allergies) nancy pelosi gave him the clap? bad potty training?

who cares. life is too short to be upset by "ditto heads".

excelsior!

 

Post a Comment

<< Home