Here's another article in from todays Phila. Daily News to ignore.
MOORE FICTION THAN FACT
By DOM GIORDANO
The summer movie season is a great way to escape the real world for a couple of hours. You can choose from the earth freezing over in "The Day After Tomorrow," Harry Potter's latest adventures, or Spider-Man facing the evil Doctor Octopus.
And if those film fantasies don't pop your popcorn, you can watch Michael Moore battling the truth and facts in his latest documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11."
Let me be upfront in my background in addressing the inaccuracies and exaggerations in "Fahrenheit 9/11." I liked "Roger and Me" and admired Moore's doggedness and storytelling ability in that film. However, since that time I have seen Moore in many disputes over accuracy and fairness in his subsequent films and books.
One other piece of information - I support President Bush and the war in Iraq.
In his boorish acceptance speech at the 2003 Academy Awards, Moore proclaimed that President Bush was a fictitious president and the reasons for the Iraq conflict were false and misleading. How ironic that Moore is now getting similar criticism for playing loose and fast with the facts in this film.
One of the most troubling parts of Moore's film is how he mocks President Bush for the seven minutes he continued to read to schoolchildren in Florida after learning of the 9/11 attacks. Gwendolyn Tose-Rigell, the principal at Emma E. Booker Elementary School, and a woman who says she did not vote for Bush, told a Florida newspaper "I don't think anyone could have handled it better." She says the video doesn't convey all that was going on in the classroom and that Bush's posture had a calming effect and "helped us get through a very difficult day."
One of the best examples of Moore's vision colliding with the facts is Moore's claim that President Bush arranged special flights to get 142 Saudis, including members of the bin Laden family, out of the country due to special business connections with the Bush family.
Ironically, this is contradicted by major Bush critic and former terrorism czar Richard Clarke, who recently told Hill Magazine that he was responsible for allowing the Saudis to leave with the help of the FBI. The 9/11 Commission also stated that "each of the flights we have studied was investigated by the FBI and dealt with in a professional manner prior to its departure."
Moore even exaggerates Bush's vacation time, inferring that he took off 42 percent of his first eight months in office. Moore counts weekends at Camp David and working vacations at the Texas ranch where Bush met at length with Tony Blair, Vincente Fox, and others. The actual figure of real vacation time comes out to about 15 percent. But why let real numbers get in the way of a documentary's agenda?
Moore also makes much of the fact that President Bush had ties to the bin Laden family through Bush's father's relationship with the Carlyle Group, a private investment firm. It is true that until recently that Bush Sr. was a senior adviser and some members of bin Laden's family did have $2 million invested with Carlyle. However the group has a bipartisan list of partners, including President Clinton's SEC chairman Arthur Levitt.
The film also claims that the group gained from 9/11 because it owned United Defense, a military contractor. However, this firm's $11 billion Crusader artillery rocket system is one of the only weapons systems canceled by the Bush administration.
Moore's most misleading attempt to connect Bush business interests to the war on terror is when Taliban leaders visited Texas and Washington in 1997. It's true that in December 1997, a delegation of Taliban officials visited Unocal, a gas and oil company with interests in Texas. Unocal was trying to strike a deal to construct a gas pipeline through Afghanistan. Moore implies the delegation met with Bush. The fact is the delegation did not meet with Bush but did meet with Clinton administration officials at the State Department.
No doubt Moore has a great eye and a good comedic touch.
But we are at war and a presidential election hangs in the balance. Thanks to our hard-fought freedoms, Moore is entitled to make his cinematic rants against what he claims is a "fictitious president." Of course, it's equally fair to criticize him when he's guilty of fictitious filmmaking.
Edit; end of origional article...
Of course as soon as he said "Bush supporter" some just said " ha! so it can't be true" or "he's got an adgenda right wing lies crap etc. etc." instead of "hmmm he may have a point maybe its worth checking out"..nothing like keeping an open mind.
. @ Welryn : not physic..maybe physcho ?
