From: "Eric" <ericandmary-AT-earthlink.net>
Subject: Notes on Fahrenheit 9/11
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 22:49:54 -0500


All,

I also went to see Moore's movie and was both moved and invigorated by
it. The content wasn't really all that new to me. It was more of a
feeling that now the story many of us knew about before the war was
finally being told. The conspiracy of silence with regard to the Iraqi
war was finally over.  

The strongest parts of the movie for me weren't the political argument
Moore was making as much as it was the footage - seeing the things that
are seldom shown here. It gave a sense of a taboo being broken; of a
dream without the censor. I am thinking in particular of those shots of
Iraqi civilians before and after the bombs were dropped, the old man at
the gym whose candor led to a police investigation, the patriotic woman
who lost her son and whose pain hurt so much to watch.  

I don't know how to respond to the argument that the movie is a kind of
virus infecting our material mapping. The American body politic today
seems much too divided for such biological and spatial metaphors to
really be accurate.  Just as the university has turned from the pursuit
of Geist/knowledge and has become performative and profit-oriented, so
journalism has lost its innocence as an objective witness to history.  

Frank Rich wrote an interesting article in the NY Times this week in
which he argued the reasons why so much of the media self-censored the
kind of reporting Moore made visible wasn't because of a right-wing
conspiracy, but merely the market-driven nature of what the news has
become.  He points out that the personality and happy talk journalism
that began in the seventies and has now become so pervasive must strive
to be positive and upbeat or risk losing its audience. The old kind of
journalism that was exemplified when Carole Coleman of the Irish RTE
asked Bush real questions and refused to accept the usual nonanswers
riled up George W. so much that he had Laura cancel her scheduled
interview. The Daily Show on Comedy Central, besides being very funny,
is also very insightful about the way our media works today. 

My main worry about Fahrenheit 9/11 is that the news has now become such
a niche market that I don't know how far it sphere of influence will
extend beyond the already converted. Fox news and their ilk treat Moore
as one of the liberal damned 'out of the mainstream' and is already hard
at work attempting to contain the virus (if that's what he is.)

(As far as the fat comments are concerned, remember Al Franken's book
"Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot"?  Some of this may be tit for tat.)

Now for some brief critique. I personally think Moore is simply wrong in
his analysis when he attempts to argue the Bushies are in the Saudis
pocket. The Saudis, despite their many faults, have championed the cause
of the Palestinians.  They also argued against attacking Iraq. 

The scope of Moore's criticism is limited because he refuses to see the
extent to which the Saudis in actuality are in Bush's pocket today and
that the pursuit of Empire has its own political and economic agenda,
based on maintaining America's hegemony.  

It is one thing to attack the war on Iraq. To attack the neo-imperialism
of the US or the neo-conservative and Christian fundamentalist policies
that drive our support of Israel would have gone beyond the pale.  

Even Moore knows his limits. We should be grateful for what he has given
us.  Perhaps Moore's film is a salvo in the war of position that will
help to bring Bush down. 

eric