Over at Little Green Footballs, there’s a post from Friday evening about another fact check against Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11.” In this instance, it’s not a shortening of quotes to change context or anything like that - it’s the actual changing of reality in the film.
The Illinois-based Pantagraph newspaper states that Moore’s use of a front page of their paper isn’t really the issue. It’s that the front page he used, dated December 19, 2001, never contained the headline it is shown with - “Latest Florida recount shows Gore won election.” In fact, that headline was never on any article in the paper, only as a letter to the editor from December 5th of 2001.
I’m not sure how Moore or the movie’s distribution company, plan to get out of this one. In a documentary, altering facts - or reality, in this case - is not going to fly. Newspaper headlines are newspaper headlines, plain and simple. I don’t want to hear about how the fonts were different or anything - use a newspaper’s name and style - it’s misrepresentation at its worst.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Trudy W. Schuett // Jul 31, 2004 at 4:27 pm
Every time I see another Michael Moore story, it gives more support to my theory: He is a classic case of a good idea gone hopelessly wrong after the inclusion of too much money, too much fame.
I am very sorry to see a fellow Michigander sink to such depths. He’s not even welcome in Flint anymore, the town he tried to save. I can’t imagine the depth of betrayal Flint residents must feel.
I’m originally fron Detroit, and by God, I would not bother to pay to see any of his movies.
2 The Prop // Aug 1, 2004 at 8:19 am
While your point is well taken, is there anyone out there who is going to have their mind changed by Michael Moore? The Left accepts his work without condition and the Right rejects it.