FW: A little perspective from Michael Moore

Phyllis Gardner counters Randy Black's account of Michael Moore: "Michael Moore's father was an auto worker in Flint, Michigan. He lived in a suburb near Flint. It was certainly NOT an exclusive, super wealthy suburb - perhaps those claiming that should provide data backing up that claim for the time period in which Michael Moore lived there. The movie, which has won wide critical acclaim (including, of course, the highly coveted Palme D'Or, which is regarded as the highest critical honor to the movie industry) was definitely made for political motivation more than profit - Michael Moore openly says that it is his propaganda tool to motivate people to vote Bush out of office. Today's NTY Op-Ed piece by Paul Krugman (a Princeton economist who has turned solidly anti-Bush, but no one can claim he is stupid or out to make money) notes that the movie has been a hit in both blue and red America, even at theaters close to military bases. As Krugman states, "There has been much tut-tutting by pundits who complain about the movie, though there has yet to be caught 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?" He goes on to say that for all it's flaws (related to promotion of a few unproven conspiracy theories, such as between Prince Bandar bin Sultan and the Bush family to hide the Saudi role in 9/11), the movie performs an essential service by revealing true stories the public should have learned elsewhere and didn't (like Bush reading "My Pet Goat" in an elementary classroom for 7 minutes after news of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center). I suggest that one read the entire Op-Ed piece for a reasonably balanced and nuanced view of the film". http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/02/opinion/02KRUG.html