Ben Varkentine (who has his own fun weblog here) writes to ask about my statement that I won't be going to see Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11…
I wonder if you could expand on this in the blog when you have a minute. I think I share your ambivalence about Moore, but I plan to see the film, and was wondering what if anything made up your mind.
Well, I don't get to a lot of movies at all these days. When time is short, as it always seems to be, I figure I can always see the movie later on DVD or cable…and then I don't even get around to that. But to the extent I do have time to go to a movie, I'm sure I'll be able to find something I'd prefer.
I like some of the things Moore has done and not others. His two TV shows, TV Nation and The Awful Truth, almost seemed to alternate brilliant material with things that made me cringe…and not in a good way. I think he's kind of like the Rush Limbaugh of the left in that around 50% of what he says/does is honest insight and 50% is dishonest theater. It gets attention, it prods others into action, sells tickets (or in Rush's case, gets ratings) and it maybe reinforces a lot of dubious beliefs…but ultimately, it just drives our national debate further into mud-wrestling. I guess what ruins it for me with both of them is that in each case — and this applies to others, as well — you have a real smart man who's good at entertaining, good at socking home his points…but he won't stop where the supportable facts leave off. It may not bother others but I don't want to get hooked by the good parts and then embarrassed by the excesses. I keep feeling let down by the guy, and I'd rather not risk more of that intermittment disappointment.
That's just my choice at the moment. If you see it and tell me there are wonderful moments in it, I won't be surprised. But if I see those wonderful moments and feel the same way, I'll feel I have to defend them when, as is inevitable with someone as polarizing as Moore, his enemies argue that every single syllable is a deliberate lie. And Moore just makes it too hard to defend the good parts of his work…