Word is out that Ray Bradbury is torqued with Michael Moore over Moore’s titling his film “Fahrenheit 9/11.” Seems he doesn’t like the homage, if you will, to his classic tale of book burning and censorship.
I can see both sides of this one. On the one hand, Moore should’ve gotten Bradbury’s blessing. Then again,if he asked Bradbury’s permission, he’d have to be willing to toss the title if the response was negative, and Moore likely didn’t want to do it. On the other hand, I don’t exactly see where the author of “Something Wicked This Way Comes” gets to bìŧçh about riffing another author’s words. At least Moore changed his title rather than using a verbatim quote. And considering there’s going to be a new edition of “F451” coming up in a few weeks, what’s the harm in some free publicity?
I think Moore should stand firm with the title but offer to put a big ‘With thanks to Ray Bradbury” in the credits or, if that’s no longer possible, in the DVD release. Maybe even interview Bradbury for a DVD extra to get his take on what’s going on these days.
PAD
• 
Although if he treats the Bat as badly as Clooney did, I might start calling him Christian Bane…
“Although if he treats the Bat as badly as Clooney did, I might start calling him Christian Bane…”
actually, i blame joel shumacher more then clooney or kilmer. he’s the man that killed the franchise.
Joe V.
“I’d never heard of Bradbury or F451. Would you recommend it?”
Oh definitely. A lovely book. The film version, by Truffant doesn’t measure up, though there are a few very nice bits (it was Truffant’s only film in English). Great score by Bernard Herrmann (though it sometimes doesn’t seem to jibe with the film–editing problems?). It’s got that cheesy 60s Euro sci-fi vibe–doesn’t hold up well.
(I find it amusing that so many science fiction movies show a future where everyone dresses and looks alike, when the reality is that a glance down any school hallway will give evidence of a far greater degree of sartorial independence than ever.)
Tim,
No the assumption wasn’t so bizarre, in retrospect. No harm done, except to my increasingly fragile psyche (they just cancelled Lollapalooza! My chance to make a monstrous embarrassment out of myself by grooving to the Pixies surrounded by kids half my age goes up in smoke. Sob.)
What I love about school kids is how they come to believe that we teachers have no life outside of school. They see you in the grocery store and are stunned–“Mr. Mulligan, what are you doing here?” like it’s a friggin opium den or something. If they ever saw me walking out of a Liquor Store or Victoria’s Secret I think their heads would explode like the finale of SCANNERS.
What I love about school kids is how they come to believe that we teachers have no life outside of school. They see you in the grocery store and are stunned–“Mr. Mulligan, what are you doing here?” like it’s a friggin opium den or something. If they ever saw me walking out of a Liquor Store or Victoria’s Secret I think their heads would explode like the finale of SCANNERS.
I think this is a function of youth. I have a number of actors in my troup who are (sigh) young enough to be my sons and daughters. When the topic of sex comes around, everything’s fine until it gets around to me…and everyone takes the opportunity to go EEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWW!
[Folks, I’m (barely) middle aged….not DEAD!]
F451 was a god book ,i recall reading it for high
school and really enjoyed it.
As far as Bale as the Batman ,i am willing to give him and Christopher nolan a chance.Shumacher was obviously doing movies with out respect or attempt at being true to the material.
One of the better episodes of the Batman cartoon
had a bunch of kids describing Batman as they saw him.There was Frank,Bill,Bob,i think but they all pretty much blew off their friend Joel’s version .Pretty funny
Bill and Roger,
Another “fascinations of youth” moment came when I told my students (juniors and seniors, all girls) that we had a baby on the way. There was, of course, a great deal of congratulating and high-pitched squealing and such … but one girl asked, clearly a little apprehensive, “so … do your parents know?”
“Uh … yeah.”
“What do they think?”
“Oh, they’re happy. My mother’s been hinting for a few years that a grandchild would be welcome.”
“Wow. I think my mom would kill me.”
“Yeah, hon, she would. I’m twice your age and married.”
[No, I didn’t say the last line, though something similar to the second sentence made it out.]
Talk about having trouble looking outside one’s own worldview…
And on a different note — I’ve never seen Truffaut’s version of F451, but I’ll certainly second recommendations for the book!
TWL
Oh, “Fahrenheit 451” is definitely great reading. Our library book discussion group did a reading on it last year. I even tried to get the Daily News to do a story on it. We had just done a story on censorship, so I thought it would be timely.
Great book.
Say what you will about Ann Coulter, but she is a BABE! At least in my humble opinion.
See? I know how to reduce the most intelligent and insightful discussion to the level of base mysogyny in no time.
Tomorrow is the big nationwide debut of Michael Moore’s new movie, “Fahrenheit 9/11”. So, as a tribute to the most popular author and film maker on the left, I’ve decided to post some of Michael Moore’s best quotes.
Enjoy!
—
“If someone did this [9/11] to get back at Bush, then they did so by killing thousands of people who DID NOT VOTE for him! Boston, New York, D.C., and the planes’ destination of California — these were places that voted AGAINST Bush!” — Michael Moore On 9/12/2001
“There is no terrorist threat in this country. This is a lie. This is the biggest lie we’ve been told.” — Michael Moore, October 2003
“In terms of marketing (Fahrenheit 9/11), Front Row is getting a boost from organisations related to Hezbollah which have rung up from Lebanon to ask if there is anything they can do to support the film. And although Chacra says he and his company feel strongly that Fahrenheit is not anti-American, but anti-Bush, ‘we can
You’re living in your own little world, man. At least you can control the weather.
Well, atleast my memory isn’t so short that I’ve already forgotten this particular point of the Republican 2000 campaign.
Moore is least half right on that last one more than likely. Bin Laden is already in custody and waiting to be “captured” around September or October, before the election… 3 to 1 odds on that one.
“Well, atleast my memory isn’t so short that I’ve already forgotten this particular point of the Republican 2000 campaign.”
Dude, you made a mistake. No big deal, but if you keep insisting on being right you look petty. Read my post again, carefully this time, and you’ll see that we agree on the point you think we are arguing about.
Unless this is something really important for you to believe or you are one of those people who has WAY to much invested in being right (the first step into chronic Deeosity).
There’s a reason why Tim, although we would probably disagree on 70% of any collection of issues one might gather, is one of the people I most respect on this blog. Which, with $5, would buy him a good cup of coffee at Starbucks, but there you are.
Hmmm… last time I went to Starbucks, I was able to get a really good cup of coffee for $3.97, including tax. You mean that being respected by you means Tim gets fined $1.03 by Starbucks? And what do Boomer and Apollo have to say about all this, anyway?
Well, I was including the $1.03 tip for the foxy coffee server with the mocha colored skin that soaks up the rich smell of java blend all day until it is literally wafting out of her pores…ok I gotta go now.
(Note to the Mrs when she reads this: Kidding! Love ya! Coffee scented women mean nothing to me! Pah! We will not talk of them again!)
“Moore wrote he’d once been “forced” to listen to my comments on a TV chat show, The McLaughlin Group. I had whined “on and on about the sorry state of American education,” Moore said, and wound up by bellowing: “These kids don’t even know what The Iliad and The Odyssey are!” Moore’s interest was piqued, so the next day he said he called me. “Fred,” he quoted himself as saying, “tell me what The Iliad and The Odyssey are.” I started “hemming and hawing,” Moore wrote. And then I said, according to Moore: “Well, they’re . . . uh . . . you know . . . uh . . . okay, fine, you got me–I don’t know what they’re about. Happy now?” He’d smoked me out as a fraud, or maybe worse. The only problem is none of this is true. It never happened. Moore is a liar. He made it up. It’s a fabrication on two levels. One, I’ve never met Moore or even talked to him on the phone. And, two, I read both The Iliad and The Odyssey in my first year at the University of Virginia. Just for the record, I’d learned what they were about even before college.” — Fred Barnes
Read Michael’s response to it over at:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=19
Heck, they reported about it in the washington post in 1988….
Again… this is an argument where you have to take someone’s word. Fred Barnes or Michael Moore…
Moore does make a good point… if it was first in 1988, then why is Barnes bìŧçhìņg about it now?
Travis
Actually, i kinda doubt bin Laden’s actually been captured – don’t think they’d be able to keep the “chatter” on that quiet for so long – but it would not surprise me in the slightest if they knew his whereabouts and were simply waiting for the most politically advantageous time to bring him in. Like, say, a couple of weeks or so before the election, so the “bounce” wouldn’t have time to wear off.
Brian
After reading Barnes and Moore one must come to the conclusion that, if Moore’s account is true, both are guilty of lies. Barnes, for saying he never talked to Moore and Moore for making up quotes and reporting them as fact (Barnes is not unable to describe what the Illiad and Oddysey are about–he fails a 3 question quiz about the Illiad, Dante’s Inferno, and a historical question about Alexander the Great.)
For the record, I would have flunked it with only 2 out of 3 correct. Oh well, blame it on the ravages of age.
Frankly, watching Moore vs Barnes is like watching Rodan vs Megalon; I don’t much care who wins but it has a certain entertainment value.
No big deal, but if you keep insisting on being right you look petty
Well, comments such as this tend to drown out all else:
You’re living in your own little world, man. At least you can control the weather.
I should probably just refrain from reading this board at 6am as well.
“Well, comments such as this tend to drown out all else:”You’re living in your own little world, man. At least you can control the weather.”
as does
“Glad to see you failed to notice. Unsurprising in the least.”
Anyway…I apologize. I got snippy. Not having to wake up at early hours allows me to stay up way past my freshness date.
I was looking forward to seeing “F 9/11” here in Augusta, GA… imagine my surprise when none of the three local megaplexes (with at least 40 screens between them) are screening it. What gives? I’d heard that it’s only opening on 850+ screens nationwide, and that conservative group MoveAmericaForward.org was actively pressuring theater owners not to show it, but I figured it’d at least get a limited showing here in AndyGriffithville. I’d be interested to know where the vast majority of theaters showing it are located; not in the South, methinks…
Now I’m debating with myself whether it’s worth it to drive 2 hours to Atlanta or Columbia, SC to see it, or if I should just wait until it catches a head of steam at the box office (which analysts expect it to) and see it when it eventually screens here in town. I’d be really disappointed to find out local theater owners knuckled under to a political group, especially after they made a big deal about how ‘liberal’ their film-screening policy was back when “The Passion Of The Christ” came out.
And how can one ‘Move America Forward’ by suppressing viewpoints? Wouldn’t that be more like ‘Moving America Backward’? I mean, I respect a political group’s right to an opinion, and their right to protest/campaign/boycott in order to further their cause, but in this case the group’s name just strikes me as oxymoronic. Any other takers out there? 🙂
That OTHER John Byrne
BrakYeller,
I suspect the limited release of 9/11 is part of a strategy to generate good word of mouth–it’s an easy sell in the cities but documentries tend to have limited appeal elsewhere. I’d wait a week and see what happens at that point–it’ll still be playing in Atlanta for a good month or 2.
BrakYeller, I’m not sure how, but we the good people of Oklahoma City actually got a semi-premier here tonight of this film. One of ten cities allowed to do so (most of them are on the coasts)…
Nothing shocked me more… we’re a very conservative state(with a lot of Democrats… farmers, ya know… and yes, there is such a thing as a conservative Democrat)
I ain’t going, cause I don’t have the cash… but it still is interesting… oh… and all of the “mini-premiere”‘s profits go to charity. Moore demanded it…. didn’t say what charity, just charity.
Travis
Bill- I’d had the same thought with regard to the word of mouth/build-up campaign. With so much against it from the outset (the fact that it’s a documentary and therefore not a surefire moneymaker, the politicking surrounding its release, etc), that’d be the smart play. I guess I just don’t want somebody who sees it before me to ruin it for me… as usually happens when I’m the last person on the planet to see a flick.
Travis- Perhaps, as Oklahoma City was the victim of a terrorist attack, and as Moore’s documentary deals with terrorism, the politics there had something to do with OC getting a semi-premiere? I’m just spitballing here, and not trying to point fingers or anything.
tOjb
Joe Krolik,
I absolutely agree. Ann Coulter IS a major babe! Sharp as a tack too, which has a helluva lot to do with the first point.:)
I find it funny that a conservative group wants to have any tv ads for the movie pulled that would air in late July.
This is going to be a mistake, poking through two days of posts, and if anyone asks what I’m doing oon the computer for an hour, I’m surfing pørņ.
Tim:
“Yeah, silly me, falling back on that innocent-until-proven-guilty thing…!
Okay, now THAT one was uncalled-for. I’m not on a jury examining his case, nor did I say anything other than “I’m going to wait for the findings.” Those findings are presumably what the grand jury is empaneled to give us in the first place, yes?”
Eep. I actually thought I was being clever…! Guess I haven’t gotten the rythmn of the board down…OK, sorry it sounded snarky, but I do think that the point is true. Without evidence that there was an intentional, directed leak, I just can’t in good conscience accept the situation.
(And hey, how did you make bold letters and italics? Teach meee!!!!)
It’s funny, and by “funny” I mean “not funny at all,” that I read this morning an article about how Monica Lewinsky is upset because Clinton and cronies destroyed her life…and it made me think of all the discrediting of the women who made accusations against Clinton, and how Larry Flynt stated he would go on a crusade against anyone who tried to ring up moral issues with Clinton…and yet it was Clinton who coined “politics of personal destruction” (or was it…it was someone in his circle).
So, what does this have to do with, well, anything? Just that I’m still irked by the statements that “anyone who speaks out against this administration is (fill in the blank) when the more I think about it, short of the $800,000 Paula Jones got, it was S.O.P for the previous administration too…
Which doesn’t make it right for THIS administration (if it happens, which I still doubt), but I just want to put that false statement to rest, that’s all.
Actually, since there seem to be a handful of us here, I’m a ten-year teacher vet myself. And when I taught freshmen, we read F-451. Small world.
Bill:
“Ha! Here’s you’re retraction…AND a 14 year old girl who will need to be supported in the manner to which she has grown accustomed. On the bright side…you won’t need those encyclopedias any more because she KNOWS EVERYTHING!”
The manner to which she’s grown accustomed? Dude, I thought you said you were a teacher…
Oh, he did not! He did not! Yeah, I went there.
Craig:
“I find it funny that a conservative group wants to have any tv ads for the movie pulled that would air in late July.”
Well, that’s only because it’s currently LAW. Crappy law, but nonetheless. Michael Moore shouldn’t have positioned it as something to affect the election (and he DID say that was his intention) and thereby pretty much making it a campaign issue. It’s his own fault, and ENTIRELY appropriate for groups to call him on it.
On teachers having a life outside of their coffin:
Try going to a movie theater where one of your kids works. Try going with a date. Try not to strangle the dozens of kids the next day who want to know every detail, or even better, if you’ve slept with her.
On Fahrenheit 451:
Hey, I just Tivo-ed (Oooh…not comfortable “verbing” that word) Equilibrium. I thought that movie was amazing when I saw it in the theater, and the next day I told my AP kids to see it…not necessarily because it was related to Fahrenheit 451, which they read for me when they were freshmen, but because it was coooooooool. Gunkata! Yeah! It ain’t no gymkata, it’s Gunkata!
Charles K,
You have re-opened wounds that I thought had finally heared when you posted the work “gymkata.”
GYMKATA!!!! My God I remember watching that movie in junior high. Wow. Remember AMERICAN NINJA. They made 3 of those, i think.
Joe V.
Charles:
Well my ex-wife is a neurologist so my beloved daughter has not had to live on the steady diet of cheap Raman noodles and cans of tuna in water that her Dad has had to endure (I jest–North Carolina pays a salary that affords me the opportunity to get the PREMIUM Ramen Noodles, with the little silver packs that prevent congealing).
Gymkata! Yes!. Whenever someone at school does anything at all athletically related–slips on a pool of blood outside the boy’s room, for instance, and makes a good recovery–there are a few of us who yell out “Gymkata!”. Nobody gets it but that’s ok because it’s all part of the technique of making the kids think that you have perilously lost your mind and they had best leave you alone.
Bill, your description of putting the students off-guard reminds me of G. Gordan Liddy’s description of how to survive prison…because they are EXACTLY the same. I find the thought depressing, but not in the least surprising. Heck, most schools even look like prisons.
In all fairness, when I talk about the school and the kids it is mostly with my tongue firmly lodged in my cheek. I love the job, love the kids and the pay…well, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. Teachers DO tend toward gallows humor; it’s our nature.
Deano,
Responding to one of your posts from a bit back..
No. I do not have a problem with the beheading scenes being shown. It is reality. And those who have a problem with it being shown as “an example of what our enemies are capable of”…well, teachers in California got in hot water over showing the beheading and saying “This is what happens when you go to war”. That’s a bit over the top, especially for a young, captive audience.
Obviously, such images are going to afect almost all people, and in different ways.
But whether it’s to support the war or to raise questions about it, I feel it is important that these images be shown.
Such images are not only part of the debate, they bring it into a sharp focus.
Pro-war people may actually question if the cost is worth it. Anti-war people may actually question if the price, in the face of such “monters’, is indeed worth it.
It’s easy to make antiseptic arguments and promote theories. For the majority of americans, this is a “TV war”. Such scened may drive the point home with much more clarity for both sides.
One the Roger Moore debacle:
>>I also think well of Roger Moore, although his mouth does often run faster than his brain. Even so, he’s funny, talented, and I believe well meaning.
>Would that be Roger Moore the actor, or Roger Moore the D&D game designer/writer/editor?
Moore actually posted on this topic as a gag in his gooflike FAQ section of his website:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/faq/
Fred
I just remembered something about Mr. Bradbury (I may be wrong so anybody please correct me).
Was it he that made an appearance once in Bill Maher’s (defunct) Politically Incorrect show and say (when the topic turned to sexual harrassment) that had he not sexually harrassed his then girl friend (now wife) he wouldn’t have been able to marry her (not exact words)? Or something to that effect?
The thing I keep coming back to is that his statement was said dead seriously almost gruffly and the panel (even Bill Maher)had expressions of “Holy @#%&! Did he just say what I think he said?
Again, if it wasn’t him and my recollections are wrong to the WAY he said it, my advance apologies to Mr. Bradbury and his devoted fans (I count myself as one of them, BTW).
While I haven’t seen the new film, I have some thoughts I’d like to share.
One of the biggest problems we face is the lack of a total truth by the media on what is going on in the world. This has caused many to believe one side of things, and not have everything to help form one’s opinion.
I don’t know if there is any problems going on in setting up the Republican Convention, but it seems the local media is harping like crazy on what is going with the Democratic convention.
One problem is that we have a police union picketing. They have been working without a contract for over two years now. TWO YEARS. While the brunt of this problem is on the shoulders of the city’s mayor, I don’t see the governor of Massachusetts lifting a finger to try to help get this situation resolved. Granted, he is a Republican and the convention is a Democratic one.
One thing being brought up with the picketing is that there is protesting being done outside a mayor conference, and that John Kerry is to do a speech there. We all know the media will be going to show if Kerry crosses the line to do the speech.
On Fox News recently, the lieutenant governor was on to complain about Kerry’s lack of time in the Senate while he’s campaigning. The governor even has mentioned how Kerry ‘s vote could have saved a bill from not being passed that dealt with unemployement benefits, that it didn’t pass by one vote. Yet, we don’t hear about how many Senators were there to vote. Its the same as how we don’t know how many State Senators were not present when the Constitutional Congress convened on gay marriage.
I have always been led to believe that “F451” was about fighting censorship, that people should be allowed to have ideas. If Mr. Bradbury is upset that Mr. Moore has used such a concept to talk about other media aspects to the Bush administration, then isn’t he censoring information as well?
Theft vs. Creativity
There’s an interesting discussion going on at Peter Davids blog about Michael Moore’s use of the title “Fahrenheit 9/11” for his latest film and Ray Bradbury allegedly being unhappy with it.
Now this intrigues me not so much because I care wheth…
I have always been led to believe that “F451” was about fighting censorship, that people should be allowed to have ideas. If Mr. Bradbury is upset that Mr. Moore has used such a concept to talk about other media aspects to the Bush administration, then isn’t he censoring information as well?
From what I gather, he’s just irked that someone’s using a riff on the title of one of his books in a political diatribe. Evidently he doesn’t want people to assume (perhaps incorrectly) his endorsement based solely on that title. That’s not censorship. As far as I know, he’s done nothing to keep the information from being presented; he just doesn’t seem to want it presented in a way linked to him.
Well my ex-wife is a neurologist so my beloved daughter has not had to live on the steady diet of cheap Raman noodles and cans of tuna in water that her Dad has had to endure (I jest–North Carolina pays a salary that affords me the opportunity to get the PREMIUM Ramen Noodles, with the little silver packs that prevent congealing).
I have no dependents, so the salary that the State of North Carolina pays is sufficient for me to live on sandwiches. Ain’t public service grand?
Incidentally, on the Barnes v. Moore issue, did anyone else note that two of the three questions that Barnes “failed” have nothing to do with the books he was allegedly being quizzed on? (Alexander the Great lived 800 years after the Iliad was set, and Achilleus wasn’t killed by anyone in the book, although he was in the movie– maybe Moore had an advance screenplay… 16 years in advance.)
I suspect that Moore, like most people, think that The Illiad also has the Trojan Horse in it as well.
Out of curiosity–from what sources DO we have all the parts of the Trajan War myth that are so familar but nowhere to be found in either of Homer’s works? Were they aspects that were added to the story over time or were these stories well established in Homer’s day?
Bill, regarding the “reality” of the Trojan War myth–there’s is no single myth.
It should be remembered that Homer’s telling (assuming there really was A Homer–even that can lead to literary discussions rivalling Shakespeare’s legitimacy) is supposed to be the first written account of the epic. The saga had existed previously only through oral tellings and retellings, and as in so common in oral literature, changes are often made to the original story to suit the audience being entertained. (One source suggests that there is really no way that the Homeric “Iliad” could even be correct in that a recitation of the Homeric tale would take days, if not weeks, to complete, if done in the traditional fashion.)
One way to look at the Homeric take on “The Iliad” is to view it as “Homer” being more an editor than an author. Homer–assuming his existence as the person we believe him to be–likely took several existing stories, involving several similar personages, and combined them into a single narrative, even though the new narrative doesn’t necessarily follow a single continuity. (There are a few disparate legends involving a Helen, all of which seem to refer to the legendary Helen of Troy, yet the different stories seem to span a timeframe of nearly a century, when contrasted to the framework of “The Iliad”.)
Greek mythology has a wide number of conflicting tales, but then, too, many traditional American legends tend to conflict with each other (tales of Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill, for instance, include a few versions which seem contradictory, but they don’t make the overall legends any less enjoyable).
Bill, regarding the “reality” of the Trojan War myth–there’s is no single myth.
It should be remembered that Homer’s telling (assuming there really was A Homer–even that can lead to literary discussions rivalling Shakespeare’s legitimacy) is supposed to be the first written account of the epic. The saga had existed previously only through oral tellings and retellings, and as in so common in oral literature, changes are often made to the original story to suit the audience being entertained. (One source suggests that there is really no way that the Homeric “Iliad” could even be correct in that a recitation of the Homeric tale would take days, if not weeks, to complete, if done in the traditional fashion.)
One way to look at the Homeric take on “The Iliad” is to view it as “Homer” being more an editor than an author. Homer–assuming his existence as the person we believe him to be–likely took several existing stories, involving several similar personages, and combined them into a single narrative, even though the new narrative doesn’t necessarily follow a single continuity. (There are a few disparate legends involving a Helen, all of which seem to refer to the legendary Helen of Troy, yet the different stories seem to span a timeframe of nearly a century, when contrasted to the framework of “The Iliad”.)
Greek mythology has a wide number of conflicting tales, but then, too, many traditional American legends tend to conflict with each other (tales of Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill, for instance, include a few versions which seem contradictory, but they don’t make the overall legends any less enjoyable).
Apologies for the double posting. Computer has been acting wonky lately.
One of the shows I saw around the time Troy was released in theatres was that not only had Homer perhaps taken many different stories regarding the Trojan War, but that the stories may have actually involved different wars over Troy (and the surrouding area) stretching over several centuries of time.
From THE ROAD TO HÊLL IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS DEPARTMENT:
“Fahrenheit 9/11” is doing quite well, and you know what? Kudos.
I refuse to make any comments on the film itself until I have actually seen it (what a concept!), which I intend to do tomorrow.
Anyway, some friends of mine were joking that since the movie was so anti-Bush and so marketed by its creator as helping oust Bush, that it might run afoul of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance “reform” act.
We weren’t serious, but it turns out the Federal Election Commission is.
The FEC is considering a ban on TV and radio ads for the flick after July 30. The new law bans corporate-funded ads that identify a federal candidate just before a primary or election – and, for purposes of stifling the political debate, the Republican National Convention is considered a primary.
This troubles me. I believe very stringly in Free Speech, and I feel that political ads, be they by corporations, “special interests”, the Right of the Left, or the campaigns themselves, is the ONLY way for candidates and groups to get their message out to the media, whether you feel the media is Conservative, Liberal or “Fair and Balanced”.
This is yet another example of what happens when the government tries to “fix” something.
And before anyone blames the FEC for being a Bush Administration tool, please keep in mind that none of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s films were allowed to be shown a few weeks preceding the California gubernatorial election because it was felt they would violate the “Equal Time” provision.
I felt the decision then was both ridiculous and harmful to democracy, and I feel the same way about FEC’s proposed action.
Because if it enacted, ask yourself:
How long will it be before they attempt to stop Moore from showing the film altogether, because of its partisan overtones?
How long will it be before they try to shut down – or censor – newspapers for their political slants?
Have affairs really come so far that because of McCain-Feingold, government has vested in itself the power to constrict the political debate – right before an election, when voices and opinions matter most?
This is “reform?”
This is what the McCain-Feingold law has wrought.
Yeah, Michael Moore can be a demagogue and a blowhard, but the First Amendment doesn’t care about that.
Neither should Congress or the FEC.