media consumption

Fahrenheit 9/11

OK, so let's just get this statement out of the way right now: Fahrenheit 9/11 is filmed propaganda. It presents Michael Moore's own personal speculations and theories often without a shred of supporting evidence. I'm also sure Moore selected only the footage that best supported his beliefs, weaving together a web of conspiracy and subversion at the highest levels of government. Even The Nation finds flawed logic behind some of the story Moore is telling.

But so what? This was well-crafted, entertaining, and thought-provoking propaganda, no worse than anything you might hear on Rush Limbaugh or see on FOX News. Moore does, however raise some uncomfortable and important questions. Why were dozens of members of the bin Laden family and other Saudi officials secretly flown from the country with barely any interrogation in the days following 9/11? Why was the Saudi ambassador (and close friend of the Bush family) allowed to dine privately in the White House two days after the attack? Why are American-taxpayer-paid Secret Service agents responsible for shooing documentary filmakers away from the sidewalk across from the Saudi embassy? Why did not a single US Senator sign on in support of the US Congressmen and -women who rose in protest of the 2000 election? And so on.

The most powerful segment of the film was a series of interviews with a Flint, MI woman who lost her son in Iraq. A proud, conservative, and plain-spoken American, Lila Lipscomb did not seem to fit the mold Moore was trying to fill, which is maybe why her scenes were so powerful. Here was a typical mother voicing the despair and frustration of an entire country of mothers whose children left for a war they no longer believe in.

I've heard that this film will not change many minds, which may be true. At the very least, anyone watching Fahrenheit 9/11 with an open mind will be be forced to confront the war we're waging in Iraq and the motives of the administration that has led us there.

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