Below The Fold

You few who know me, know me to be a moderate who leans to the right. I am not, by any means, a champion of the Bush administration (I find his stance on stem cell research archaic and I abhor any amendments that the Constitution to restrict personal liberties–such as the marriage amendment proposition). That’s why I’ve found it a bit tough to engage in discussion about Moore’s new movie–People automatically start drawing partisan lines in the sand about this flick, and my issues have little to do with party lines. My issues with it stem from the horrific sacrifice of journalistic integrity that is made at his altar to political obfuscation. I find his disregard for balance to be distasteful, and his lack of accuracy to be utterly repellent. Remember, this is a film he refers to as a “documentary.”

You may think me an idealist, but I do believe deeply in the keystones of my career field: Balance, Accuracy, Fairness. Only through vigilant adherence to these precepts can we trust anything said by journalist. Many people smirk at the “media machine” today with a knowing smile that suggests you can’t believe anything you hear. Many of these people then point to corporate collusion and mainstream capitalism as the devil to blame. I submit that it’s works like this one, that color themselves in a dizzying array of slanted colors underneath a cloak of fantastical legitimacy that truly sully and tarnish the last bastion against fascism.

This linked column from MSN’s Slate ( http://slate.msn.com/id/2102723/) (thanks, Jonathan) was written by noted Columnist and Democrat Christopher Hitchens. In it, he reminds us what damage a work of fiction disguised as documentary can wrought, and encourages those from either side of the dime to think before they digest this hackneyed and scurrilous approach to “journalism.” Michael Moore is an entertainer, not a journalist, and this film cements that more than any.

In the immortal words of Bill McNeil (played by Phil Hartman on News Radio), “The Devil mixes lies with the truth!” Indeed, Moore is a devil who disguises his lies as truths. Here, again, provided by a liberal, is a fantastic rebuttal to Farfromtruth 9/11…