HELIOLITH

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Moore’s Public Service

Thanks to Kevin Drum for quoting Krugman and for bringing this op-ed to my attention.

I recently entered into a late-night brief conversation with some of my relations about Fahrenheit 9/11, the movie that I have seen, and they had not. One anonymous relation stated that they were not at all interested in seeing the film, having seen some of Moore’s TV shows, and having strong opinions about his muck-raking and allegedly sensational, opinionated style. The irony to that view is that the majority of the film is delivered by soldiers, parents, citizens, and 3rd parties. Moore himself, although directing the flow of the film, plays a much smaller role than in “Bowling for Columbine” for example.

Here is the part of Krugman’s article, that originally drew my interest:

There has been much tut-tutting by pundits who complain that the movie, though it has yet to be caught in any major factual errors, uses association and innuendo to create false impressions. Many of these same pundits consider it bad form to make a big fuss about the Bush administration’s use of association and innuendo to link the Iraq war to 9/11. Why hold a self-proclaimed polemicist to a higher standard than you hold the president of the United States? [emphasis added]

Great question.

I have a hard time understanding why anyone with an interest in modern political discourse and the fate of our world would be uninterested, or unwilling to view the film in order to develop their own perspective rather than relying upon the various critiques opining that the film doesn’t even deserve a viewing, which flies in the face of the film’s record-breaking sales in both conservative and liberal communities. No number of critiques could reconstruct an accurate picture of the experience of the film itself.

Another conversation I had revolved around a comparison of Moore to Limbaugh. If Limbaugh were to create something (a show or a speech or whatever he is gifted in creating) that were to create the ripples in mainstream public discourse over issues that weren’t being truly discussed, I honestly think I would take the time to read/view/understand the piece, my politics aside.