This is from the article Fifty-nine Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11. Which you called "59 lies in F9/11"...
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Thanks to the readers who have written to point out additional deceits or to point out items which need clarification. Also thanks to the readers who have written in defense of Moore. Many such readers have been rational and civil. Moore's reasonable defenders have made two main points:
First, notwithstanding the specific falsehoods, isn't the film as a whole filled with many important truths?
Not really. We can divide the film into three major parts. The first part (Bush, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan) is so permeated with lies that most of the scenes amount to lies. The second, shorter part involves domestic issues and the USA PATRIOT Act. So far, I've identified only one clear falsehood in this segment (Rep. Porter Goss's toll-free number). So this part, at least arguably, presents useful information. The third part, on Iraq has several outright falsehoods--such as the Saddam regime's murder of Americans, and the regime's connection with al Qaeda. Other scenes in the third part--such as Iraqi casualties, interviews with American soldiers, and the material on bereaved mother Lila Lipscomb--are not blatant lies; but the information presented is so extremely one-sided (the only Iraqi casualties are innocents, nobody in Iraq is grateful for liberation, all the American soldiers are disillusioned, except for the sadists) that the overall picture of the Iraq War is false.
Second, say the Moore supporters, what about the Bush lies?
Well there are lies from the Bush administration which should concern everyone. For example, the Bush administration suppressed data from its own Department of Health and Human Services which showed that the cost of the new Prescription Drug Benefit would be much larger than the administration claimed. This lie was critical to passage of the Bush drug benefit bill. Similarly, Bush's characterization of his immigration proposal as not granting "amnesty" to illegal aliens is quite misleading; although the Bush proposal does not formally grant amnesty, the net result is the same as widespread amnesty. As one immigration reform group put it, "Any program that allows millions of illegal aliens to receive legal status in this country is an amnesty."
But two wrongs don't make a right, and the right response to Presidential lies is not more lies from his political opponents. Moreover, regarding the issues presented in Fahrenheit 9/11, the evidence of Bush lies is extremely thin. Moore shows Bush claiming that a particular day at the ranch in Crawford, Texas, was a working vacation, but Bush appears to be dissembling. Later, after Osama bin Laden was driven into hiding but was not captured, Bush unconvincingly claims not to spend much time thinking about bin Laden. Within Fahrenheit 9/11, most of rest of alleged Bush administration lies actually involve Moore's fabrications to create the appearance of a lie--such as when Moore chops a Condoleezza Rice quote to make her say something when she actually said the opposite.
The one significant Bush administration lie exposed in the film involves the so-called USA PATRIOT Act; as Fahrenheit accurately claims, at least some of the material in the USA PATRIOT Act had nothing to do with 9/11, and instead involved long-sought items on the FBI agenda which had previously been unable to pass Congress, but which were enacted by Congress under Bush administration assurances that they were essential to fighting terrorism.
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I read Kopel critic and must say some of it holds truth, but to boil it down to the bare bones. Moore's deceits are in how he edits using his own world view as a framework. He doesn't tell you every detail of the images he shows and has them often in a sequence that produces an expected response. This is movie making...maybe it isn't honest documentary making, but then maybe those days are gone.
It is no more slimy than showing Gore yelling and then showing Hitler yelling (even if it was Bush and then Hitler elsewhere).
Current Events » in reply to Try learning to read
re: Try learning to read
The whole thread (34 posts)
- Moore's film taken as Gospel?
- before you get all Bushey eyed....
- W. Bush should be pleased with the movie
- hmm, seemed like refreshing entertainment to me. Do you take Tom Brokaw as gospel?
- Excellent post, Art...........
- Actually, when it comes to Iraq, I'll take the word of people who were there.
- I highly recommend you do a little more research on Michael Moore.
- awfully presumptive of you to think that I haven't Tom
- re: Tom have you seen Fahrenheit 9/11? Have you read any of his books or seen any of his movies? (n/t)
- Somehow I doubt it Chris
- Here's an analysis from someone who examined F9/11 in depth
- got some good new links out of your post
- re: Here's an analysis from someone who examined F9/11 in depth
- Why would I give a dime to Michael Moore?
- re: Why would I give a dime to Michael Moore?
- So does that statement make you a David Duke supporter Larry? lol
- Why would I give a dime to Michael Moore?
