Manufacturing Dissent: Uncovering Michael Moore

[Johann]

I watched this DVD out of sheer curiosity. I wanted to see what kind of teeth a documentary against Mike Moore has.
And to my surprise they had a couple bites. But nothing to radically alter my opinion of the man and his work.

This was made by two Canadians in 2007, Rick Caine & Debbie Melnyk, who want to uncover Mike Moore's M.O., as they are fans of his.

They have trouble getting Moore to sit down to an interview. He rebuffs them often, as he's on the Slacker Uprising tour to get youth to vote in the 2004 election, and he's VERY busy. I got the impression that he sensed a witchhunt from Debbie, so he got the word out to his security and others on his side to block them. His behaviour when confronted by Debbie at different times showed me that he was keenly aware of this "documentary" they were making and didn't want to give them any ammo whatsoever. But she's persistent, I gotta give her that....

They make the accusation that Moore is associated with buying Halliburton stock (among other stock) and that shocked me. The proof seemed flimsy, but they put it out there. Moore denies it.
Moore is also quoted (from a friend of his) that he said "I want to get rich. I'm an American", relating to his career in muckraking.
The only thing they seemed to point out that has any real teeth is that Moore is an egomaniac. I can buy that.
But he's an egomaniac that I can stomach. If you are an egomaniac and you make TV shows, films and write books about how fucked up things are in your neighborhood or country I CAN DIG IT. Especially coming from a man who really CARES and demonstrates it time and time again.

Yes, he manipulates.
He's quoted (again by a friend of his) that the details about meeting Roger Smith not once but TWICE during the shooting of Roger and Me were left on the cutting room floor. At first that made me mad. Then I thought about it- this is a REAL filmmaker who is considering the whole impact of his work. He wants the impression on the viewer to be very precise, and I FUCKING LOVE THAT.
I love it because he's willing to be called out on it- he's seeing if anyone is really paying attention. And then it doesn't really matter- it's almost a fail-safe in a way- because the message has been sent and the Legend grows...

It's pointed out that there is no one to counter the Right with their huge, lopsided and grossly arrogant domination of public debate, which is why Moore became so successful.
Damn right.
As far as i'm concerned, until there is someone with Superman's level of integrity to balance the right and left wing shit-slinging, I'll take the Michael Moore brand until I die.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for calling this to our attention, Johan. I hadn't even heard of it; its potential interest is in its coming from sympathetic, left-leaning filmmakers. IMDb provides links to 33 reviews (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0961117/externalreviews), of which the two from the Guardian and ones by O'Hehir in Salon.com and one in Variety seemed particularly good. All this serves as a strong reminder that despite Michael Moore's huge contribution to the world of documentary filmmaking, presumably a major source of the relative boom in the field now, the man and his work are seriously flawed, that he lives high, fudges facts, and won't give interviews that aren't merely the kind of showcase for whatever he wants to say that the ones on Democracy Now have been. But none of this convinces me that this movie has sufficient new and solid material in it to make me need to see it.

[Johann]

I'm in Moore's corner just for the fact that the subjects he tackles are damn important. And the way he presents them..I love it.
But yes, he's a manipulator. The doc made me reconsider my position on him a tad. I still love the man but
the allegation of buying Halliburton stock is something that really bothers me and I wish that was probed more in-depth.
That's a serious and unjustifiable insult if he did that- he could lose my support faster than the speed of light if that's true.

Fuck Mike...you built up a great legend for yourself. Are you pulling the wool here?
See it Chris and let me know if you can suss out the truth better than I can.
It's worth watching.

[Chris Knipp]

A conservatively oriented book by Peter Schweizer called Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy says Moore owns 2,000 shares of Halliburton stock and also accuses other liberal public figures such as Nancy Pelosi, Noam Chomsky, Barbra Strisand, and Ralph Nader, of hypocritical behavior. Moore is said to deny ever owning any stocks at all; the book and other conservative sources that echo it say Moore conceals stock ownership by holding them through a charitable foundation. But how do we know what the truth is? Online searches of this will take you to right wing sources such as WorldNet, which says (http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=40449) George Soros owns 2 million shares of Halliburton, another shocker since Soros' liberal-left views would not justify that. Another WorldNet piece says (http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47662) referencing Schweizer, that Moore actually does own plenty of stocks, just not directly in his name but through a private corporation or charitable foundation whose actions he exclusively controls. Moore, apparently according to Schweizer,
owns tens of thousands of shares – including nearly 2,000 shares of Boeing, nearly 1,000 of Sonoco, more than 4,000 of Best Foods, more than 3,000 of Eli Lilly, more than 8,000 of Bank One as well as 2,000 of Halliburton. Moore is used to smears and laughs them off.

WorldNet Daily is a connservative website that has published claims that Obama isn't a US citizen.

We kind of knew Moore was imperfect. He's overweight, he's sloppy, and his methods are crude. But he has waked up a lot of people, and paved the way for documentaries, more sedate, airtight, and elegant ones, from the left like Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room; Taxi to the Dark Side, or Inside Job, to reach a substantial audience. I wouldn't throw out BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, FAHRENHEIT 911, OR SICKO just because Moore's personal behavior is contradictory. But at this point how contradictory it is is hard to know. It doesn't sound to me like Rick Caine and Debbie Melnyk are deft or aggressive enough documentary filmmakers to suss it all out.

The explanation may be that Moore donates to a foundation that owns Halliburton stock. As for Soros, a Reuters story in 2007 says (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSWAO00006720070214) he bought 1.9 million shares of Halliburton stock.
Feb 14 [2007] (Reuters) - Billionaire investor George Soros said on Wednesday he bought 2.1 million shares of CVS Corp (CVS.N) and 1 million shares of Rite Aide (RAD.N) in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Soros also added 1.9 million shares of Halliburton (HAL.N) and 1 million shares of Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO.O) to his portfolio during the quarter.

Soros Fund Management LLC disclosed its holdings as of Dec. 31, 2006 in a quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

[Johann]

Yikes.

In Manufacturing Dissent, Melnyk & Caine present the same info, that he bought the stocks through a charitable organization.
Boeing stock as well....well that's just ducky.

I thought that the only conflict of interest that Moore had was the fact that he must get distribution from rich studio masters who are owned by other rich entities- the whole "sleeping with the enemy" thing that he was upfront about in interviews.
This kind of shit just upends his "righteous" and "noble" persona.
Moore knows if you own Halliburton stock then you own blood stock.
I find it incredible to conceive that he would buy stock from the same evil corporations he purports to fight to the teeth.
It would be a mind-boggling betrayal of his audience, and if true, would truly make him a sicko American capitalist, no different than the slime he showcases in his works.
I don't want to believe that.
I'd want his head on a platter for that.

Mike!
If these allegations are true (and considering the seriousness of the conflict of interest you owe us more than just a denial) then you are doing more than sleeping with the enemy.
You're cooking her a dazzling breakfast in the morning and giving her beautiful foot massages and manicures.
My suspicions are way up now.
I love that guy for what he's done, but Jesus Christ, how can he throw all that away with buying stock from entities that have destroyed lives beyond recognition????
Is he a "True American", i.e. Fuck everybody! Gimme me share! Don't care! No way no how!

Say it ain't SO

[Chris Knipp]

Hold off, Johan. We don't know. Did you read what I said?

The explanation may be that Moore donated to a foundation that owns Halliburton stock.

Or bought a mutual fund that included it. Or there may be no truth in it at all. All the onine sources saying Moore bought Halliburton stock are right wing websites. There is no positive proof from a neutral source. But the Reuters story, if accurate, does show that George Soros bought Halliburton stock.

[Johann]

I'm just sounding off.

And if it's just that Moore donated to a charity that buys Halliburton stock, then how would he not know that- he's a sharp cat.
And Debbie brought it up to him in the film- he wasn't outraged by such an allegation. He just denies it.

[Chris Knipp]

In that book, DO AS I SAY (NOT AS I DO): PROFILES IN LIBERAL HYPORICY, etc., the authoer says Noam Chomsky (to quote World.Net, (http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=33183) the right wing website), "has made a reputation for calling America a police state and branding the Pentagon "the most hideous institution on earth," yet his entire academic career, writes Schweizer, has been subsidized by the U.S. military. "

Chomsky has worked at MIT for his whole academic career. MIT has military contracts. So they say his career "has been subsidized" by the US military. Would you decide Chomsky is a scoundrel because he worked at MIT? He taught linguistics.

[Johann]

It's tricky, isn't it?

It's very hard to be righteous and be free & unscathed of conflicts of interest- almost every entity on earth has been tainted with connections to evil shit.

I mean, I hate paying taxes to my government when they spend my tax dollars on shit that I would never in a trillion years endorse.
What can you do?
You're damned if you do, damned if you don't.
But the difference is consciousness about the situation.
If you're buying Halliburton stock when you're Michael Moore....holy dogshit is that fucked up.
Chomsky has no control over what MIT does, despite his anti-Pentagon position.

[Chris Knipp]

We do not know that Moore is buying Halliburton stock. It seems likely he isn't.

[Johann]

I refuse to believe it.
I don't think Moore could possibly live with himself if that were the case.
It's just too outrageous.