Michael Moore

For other people named Michael Moore, see Michael Moore (disambiguation).

Michael Moore

Michael Moore (born April 23 1954) is an American film director, author, and social commentator. He is widely known for his outspoken, critical views on globalization, large corporations, gun violence, the Iraq War, and the George W. Bush administration.

Early life

Michael Moore was born at St. Joseph Hospital in Flint, Michigan, and grew up in the city of Davison, a suburb of Flint. At the time, Flint was home to many General Motors factories, where his mother was a secretary, and both his father and grandfather were auto workers. His uncle was one of the founders of the United Automobile Workers labor union and participated in the famous Flint Sit-Down Strike.

Moore, an Irish American, was brought up a Roman Catholic and attended a Diocesan seminary at age 14. He then attended Davison High School, where he was active in both drama and debate , graduating in 1972. That same year, he ran for and won a seat on the Davison school board on a platform based on firing the high school's principal, John B McKenna, and vice principal, Kanje Cohen. By the end of his term both had resigned.

Moore is also an Eagle Scout, the highest rank awarded by the Boy Scouts of America; an achievement of which he is still very proud. For his Eagle Project, he filmed a documentary pointing out various safety hazards and issues within his community.

After dropping out of the University of Michigan-Flint (where he wrote for the student newspaper titled The Michigan Times and working for a day at the General Motors plant, at 22 he founded the alternative weekly magazine The Flint Voice, which soon changed its name to The Michigan Voice. In 1986, when Moore became the editor of Mother Jones, a liberal political magazine, he moved to California and the Voice was shut down. In 2003, the Star-Ledger printed an opinion piece by Paul Mulshine, where he quoted Paul Berman, who stated that Moore had been fired following a series of clashes with people on the magazine's staff, including a dispute over Moore's refusal to publish an article by Berman that was critical of the Sandinistas' human rights record. Before Moore's arrival, the magazine had commissioned the article. Moore later sued for wrongful dismissal, seeking $2 million. He finally accepted a settlement of $58,000 — the amount of anticipated trial costs — from the magazine's insurance company. Some of this money provided partial funding for his first film project, Roger and Me.

Moore has been married to producer Kathleen Glynn (born April 10, 1958 in Flint) since 1990. They now live in New York City. Natalie (born 1981), is Michael's stepdaughter. He has no other children.

He has also dabbled in acting, following a supporting role as a perverted man-child who agrees to be part of the scheme concocted by John Travolta and Lisa Kudrow in Lucky Numbers (2000).

Currently Moore leads the annual Traverse City Film Fest in northern Michigan, which is also the location of the State Theater, a classic venue that Moore (as of 2006) has been attempting to purchase.

Directing

Films and Awards

Roger & Me: Moore first became famous for his controversial 1989 film, Roger & Me, a documentary about what happened to Flint, Michigan after General Motors closed its factories and opened new ones in Mexico, where the workers were paid much less. Since then Moore has been known as a critic of the neoliberal view of globalization. "Roger" is Roger B. Smith, former CEO and president of General Motors. The documentary was an extremely ambitious undertaking for someone who had never attended film school or worked in any capacity in the movie industry. Moore was largely taught the craft of filmmaking by his cinematographer Kevin Rafferty, who is ironically also a first cousin of President George W. Bush. The influence of Rafferty, who co-directed the 1982 cult classic documentary film The Atomic Café, can be seen in Moore's satirical use of archival footage taken from vintage B-movies, television commercials, and newsreels that has since become a hallmark of his documentaries.

Canadian Bacon: In 1995, Moore released a satirical film, Canadian Bacon, which features a fictional US president (played by Alan Alda) engineering a fake war with Canada in order to boost his popularity. It is noted for containing a number of Canadian and American stereotypes, and for being Moore's only non-documentary film. The film is also the last featuring Canadian-born actor John Candy, and also features a number of cameos by other Canadian actors.

The Big One: In 1997, Moore directed The Big One, which documents the tour publicizing his book Downsize This! Random Threats from an Unarmed American, where he criticizes mass layoffs despite record corporate profits. Among others, he targets Nike for outsourcing shoe production to Indonesia.

Bowling for Columbine: Moore's 2002 film, Bowling for Columbine, probes the culture of guns and violence in the United States. Bowling for Columbine won the Anniversary Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and France's Cesar Award as the Best Foreign Film. In the United States, it won the 2002 Academy Award for Documentary Feature. It also enjoyed great commercial and critical success for a film of its type and became, at the time, the highest-grossing mainstream-released documentary (a record later held by Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11). It was praised by some for illuminating a subject slighted by the mainstream media, but it was attacked by others who claim it is inaccurate and misleading in its presentations and suggested interpretations of events.

Fahrenheit 9/11: Fahrenheit 9/11 examines America in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, particularly the record of the Bush administration and alleged links between the families of George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden. Fahrenheit was awarded the Palme d'Or, the top honor at the Cannes Film Festival; it was the first documentary film to win the prize since 1956. Moore later announced that Fahrenheit 9/11 would not be in consideration for the 2005 Academy Award for Documentary Feature, but instead for the Academy Award for Best Picture. He stated he wanted the movie to be seen by a few million more people, preferably on television, by election day. Since November 2 was less than nine months after the film's release, it would be disqualified for the Documentary Oscar. Moore also said he wanted to be supportive of his "teammates in non-fiction film." However, Fahrenheit received no Oscar nomination for Best Picture. The title of the film alludes to the classic book Fahrenheit 451 (about a future totalitarian state in which books are banned; paper begins to burn at 451 degrees Fahrenheit) and the pre-release subtitle of the film confirms the allusion: "The temperature at which freedom burns." At the box office, Fahrenheit 9/11 remains the highest-grossing documentary of all time, taking in close to $200 million worldwide, including United States box office revenue of $120 million.

Sicko (filming): Moore is currently working on a film about the American healthcare system from the viewpoint of mental healthcare, focusing particularly on the managed-care and pharmaceutical industries, under the working title Sicko. At least three major pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer , Eli Lilly and GlaxoSmithKline, have ordered their employees not to grant any interviews to Moore. According to Moore on a letter at his website, "roads that often surprise us and lead us to new ideas -- and challenge us to reconsider the ones we began with" have caused some minor delays, and the film is set to be released sometime in 2007..

Fahrenheit 9/11½ (pre-production): On November 11, 2004 Moore told the Hollywood trade publication Daily Variety that he is also planning a sequel to Fahrenheit 9/11. He said, "Fifty-one percent of the American people lacked information [in this election], and we want to educate and enlighten them. They weren't told the truth. We're communicators, and it's up to us to start doing it now." The sequel, like the original, will concern the war in Iraq and terrorism. Moore expects to complete Fahrenheit 9/11½ in 2006 or 2007.

Television shows

Between 1994 and 1995, he directed and hosted the television series TV Nation, which followed the format of news magazine shows but covered topics they avoid. The series was aired on NBC in 1994 for 9 episodes and again for 8 episodes on FOX in 1995.

His other series was The Awful Truth, which satirized actions by big corporations and politicians. It aired in 1999 and 2000.

Another 1999 series, Michael Moore Live, was aired in the UK only on Channel 4, though it was broadcast from New York. This show had a similar format to The Awful Truth, but also incorporated phone-ins and a live stunt each week. The show was performed around midday local time, which due to the time difference made it a late-night show in the UK.

In 1999 Moore won the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award in Arts and Entertainment, for being the executive producer and host of The Awful Truth, where he was also described as "muckraker, author and documentary filmmaker."

Music videos

Moore has directed several music videos, including two for Rage Against the Machine for songs from "The Battle of Los Angeles": "Sleep Now in the Fire" and "Testify". He was threatened with arrest during the shooting of "Sleep Now in the Fire", which was filmed on Wall Street; the city of New York had denied the band permission to play there, although the band and Moore had secured a federal permit to perform.

He also directed the music videos for System of a Down's "Boom!" and "All the Way to Reno (You're Gonna Be a Star)" by R.E.M..

Writings and political views

Michael Moore, pictured on the cover of one of his three best-selling books, Stupid White Men.

Moore has authored three best-selling books:

• Downsize This! (1996), about politics and corporate crime in the United States,
• Stupid White Men (2001), a critique of American domestic and foreign policy, and
• Dude, Where's My Country? (2003), an examination of the Bush family's relationships with Saudi royalty, the Bin Laden family, and the energy industry, and a call-to-action for liberals in the 2004 election.

After Moore's departure from Mother Jones, he became an employee of Ralph Nader. He left Nader's employment on bad terms, but Moore vociferously supported Nader's campaign for the United States presidency in 2000.

In exchange for jumping in the show's "traveling mosh pit," Republican Alan Keyes won the endorsement of Moore's television series The Awful Truth in 2000, although Moore does not endorse Keyes' views.

Moore became a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association after the Columbine High School Massacre. He has said in an interview that his intention was to run for president of the organization and dismantle it after winning.

In the 2004 election, Moore urged Nader not to run, despite having supported him in 2000, so as not to split the liberal vote. (Moore joined Bill Maher on the latter's television show in kneeling before Nader to plead with him to stay out of the race.) In June 2004, Moore claimed he is not a member of the Democratic party (although he registered as a Democrat in 1992 [2]). Although Moore endorsed General Wesley Clark for the Democratic nomination on January 14, Clark withdrew from the primary race on February 11. Moore drew attention when charging publicly that Bush was AWOL during his service in the National Guard (see George W. Bush military service controversy). Also, during an October 27 stop in Portland, OR, Moore called the private phone number of radio host Lars Larson, given to him by a member of the audience.

Moore was a high-profile guest at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, prominently seated in a box with former President Jimmy Carter and his wife. Moore also attended the 2004 Republican National Convention, (for a daily column chronicling his impressions of the convention in USA Today), where he was criticized in a speech by Republican Senator John McCain as "a disingenuous film-maker".

File:Michael Moore at syracuse.jpg

Michael Moore speaks in the Carrier Dome at Syracuse University

During September and October 2004, Moore spoke at universities and colleges in swing states during his "Slacker Uprising Tour". The tour gave away ramen and underwear to young people who promised to vote. This provoked public denunciations from the Michigan Republican Party and attempts to convince the government that Moore should be arrested for buying votes, but since Moore did not tell the 'slackers' involved whom to vote for, just to vote, district attorneys refused to get involved. The "Underwear" tour was a popular success. Large numbers of young adults registered to vote, and by a strong percentage voted for John Kerry (Kerry 54%, Bush 44%). Nonetheless, the generally increased turnout in the election ensured that the percentage of youth voting was little different than in 2000, albeit at a higher numerical level. John Kerry eventually won the state of Michigan by 3%.

Quite possibly the most controversial stop during the tour was Utah Valley State College in Orem, Utah. A fight for his right to speak ensued and resulted in massive public debates and a media blitz. Death threats, bribes and lawsuits followed. The event was chronicled in the documentary film This Divided State.

With the 2004 election over, Moore continues to collect information on the war in Iraq and the Bush administration.

Controversy and criticism

Moore's body of work has attracted a great deal of criticism from both conservatives and liberals, especially after the release of his film Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004. Metacritic lists it as having "generally favorable" reviews from movie critics who often called it "passionate" and "compelling". Furthermore the film won over 20 awards. Nevertheless, a minority of movie critics felt it was self-congratulatory or illogical. The film also inspired criticisms concerning accuracy and honesty. Moore set up a rebuttal "war room" to support the content in Fahrenheit 9/11 and counter critics who felt he had been deceptive. Many people have come to believe that Moore's mouth is as large as his ass.

Similar allegations of deceptive editing, staging or scripting scenes, or altering the original intent of the speaker in the video have also been made by critics about Moore's film Bowling for Columbine . In Bowling for Columbine, on-screen text was allegedly altered in a Bush-Quayle campaign ad, and footage edited into it from a non-campaign ad, in order to make it seem racist. Moore denied that this was done in the film, but is said to have slightly corrected the text for the DVD release.

One criticism is that he used soldiers' words in the movie Faherenheit 911 without their permission and took their comments out of context. A story in the news in June of 2006 was that one soldier brought a law suit against Moore because he claimed that he was misrepresented and his comments were twisted and taken out of context without permission.

Ray Bradbury has also criticized Moore's adaptation of his Fahrenheit 451 title without permission . However, such permission is not legally required and Bradbury himself is the author of several books whose titles are taken from works by other writers. Moore responded, saying Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which paper catches fire but that Fahrenheit 9/11 is the temperature at which "freedom burns."

With Moore's success, there have been some works criticising his books and films. These include the films UNFAIRenheit 9/11, Michael Moore Hates America, Celsius 41.11, Michael & Me, and FahrenHYPE 9/11.

Moore's documentary style is an involved, essayed form, as much about Moore himself and his opinion as they are about the subject at the heart of the film. This is a potential criticism from more traditionalist documentary makers, who prefer a more observational style in which the filmmaker remains hidden behind the camera. The feature-length essayed form was pioneered by Nick Broomfield and was adopted by documentarians such as Louis Theroux, who himself worked with Moore on TV Nation.

Moore's style has also come under fire from those who claim that when making his films, he unfairly edits and re-sequences events in order to twist or misrepresent the words of his targets or interviewees. Dave Kopel has compiled a list of alleged deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11, and Slate.com's Christopher Hitchens compiled a similar list. The caustic tone of these criticisms quickly drew counter-criticisms from OpEdNews.com articles like "Deception; Desperate Right Wing Attacks on 'Fahrenheit 9/11'" and "How Many Lies Can Christopher Hitchens Tell?" as well as an eFilmCritic article "Defending Truth: Slate's Chris Hitchens does a hatchet job on Michael Moore" and a Columbus Free Press editorial.

On September 12, 2001, the day after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington, DC, Michael Moore posted a message on his website that included the passage (since redacted from the message on the site): "Many families have been devastated tonight. This just is not right. They did not deserve to die. If someone did this to get back at Bush, then they did so by killing thousands of people who did not vote for him! Boston, New York, DC, and the planes' destination of California — these were places that voted against Bush!" This has been interpreted by some critics as Moore implying that an attack against areas that had voted for Bush would have been justifiable. These same critics have pointed out that, at a time when the people of the United States, including both major political parties, were coming together following the attacks, Moore was still focused on the electoral politics of 2000.

A recent controversy surrounds Michael Moore's public comments about the Iraq insurgency and terrorists. In a memo released on his personal website, Moore said "The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy'. They are the revolution, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow — and they will win. Get it, Mr. Bush?"

In their book Michael Moore Is a Big Fat Stupid White Man, David T. Hardy and Jason Clarke criticize Moore for, they allege, being untruthful in his film productions, especially with respect to Bowling for Columbine (the book's release predated "Fahrenheit 9/11"). Their allegation is that he primarily includes interviews and speeches that are heavily edited to create a negative image of the subject being portrayed and present misleading or false facts.

In the Peter Schweizer book Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy, Schweizer accuses Michael Moore of hypocrisy suggesting that he owns a variety of company stocks, including Haliburton stock, while at the same time criticising these companies. This accusation is based on a tax return from a foundation Schweizer alleges is controlled fully by Moore. Moore denied this on C-SPAN, with the statement "Michael Moore own Halliburton stock? See, that's like a great comedy line. I know it's not true - I mean, I've never owned a share of stock in my life. Anybody who knows me knows that, you know - who's gonna believe that? Just crazy people are going to believe it - crazy people who tune in to the Fox News Channel."

In 2004, Moore transferred the deeds of his New York City home to a private corporation that was formed specifically for this purpose. Although his reason for doing this has never been identified, it is a quite common method of reducing property taxes. Given Moore's frequent suggestion that rich people should be taxed at a higher rate, critics, including websites like MooreWatch, have accused him of hypocrisy for doing this.

Critics also note that he identifies himself as being from Flint, using Flint in his handle and signing e-mails as "The Man from Flint" and mentioning it in the introductions he has written for books.. These critics, such as in Hardy and Clarke's book as well as Peter Schweizer's, note that Davison, his childhood neighborhood, is a middle class community with better employment rates and higher incomes as opposed to the lower class status of larger Flint. However, those who reject this criticism note Moore's inconsistency in discussing his hometown, noting that he spoke of growing up in Davison in the Flint Voice in 1982, as well as point out Davison's proximity, as Davison is a suburb within 10 miles of Flint. Further, for his DVD set of "The Awful Truth" (1998), he is wearing the Davison High School baseball cap in his picture on the outside box for the second season. Identifiable as a gold script D on a maroon hat, Davison's school colors being maroon and gold and is similar to the white script D on a blue hat worn by Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers, also worn by Moore but on the DVD box for The Awful Truth first season. In the DVD content itself, he also wears the cap and in the DVD commentary feature he mentions it as being the Davison Cardinals hat (the mascot of Davison High School). Also, it is noted that Davison is a bedroom community with the vast majority of the town's middle class employment coming from commuting to the nearby city of Flint (historically for GM employment), and therefore is heavily affected by the economic status of Flint. Both Flint and Davison are in Genesee County, Michigan, of which Flint is the county seat.

In May of 2006, Moore was sued by a veteran who lost both arms in the war in Iraq. Sgt. Peter Damon of Middleborough, MA, alleges that Moore used snippets of a television interview without his permission to falsely portray him as anti-war in Fahrenheit 9/11 .

Oscar acceptance speech

When Moore accepted the Oscar for Bowling for Columbine, he created a stir when he took the opportunity to state his point of view on President George W. Bush having started the 2003 invasion of Iraq:

"Whoa. On behalf of our producers Kathleen Glynn and Michael Donovan from Canada, I'd like to thank the Academy for this. I have invited my fellow documentary nominees on the stage with us, and we would like to — they're here in solidarity with me because we like nonfiction."

We like nonfiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elects a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fictition [sic] of duct tape or fictition of orange alerts, we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up. Thank you very much."

The televised speech was met with a mixture of boos and applause from the audience. In a backstage interview with Moore afterwards, he stated that the majority of the audience was cheering. Moore repeated the part of his speech that had been cut short due to the orchestra starting to play music and his microphone being turned off, and gave the reason "I'm an American" in defense of his choice of acceptance speech. In commentary included on the DVD for Bowling For Columbine, Moore indicated that the majority of the audience were cheering for him, prompting boos from some other audience members, and that further booing was actually Moore's supporters responding to the one or two detractors who had become vocal in the audience. Some believed that the boos were mixed by re-broadcasts of the Oscar

When the host, Steve Martin, returned to the stage after Moore's speech, he joked: "It was so sweet backstage, the Teamsters are helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo."

Depictions of Moore

• In the 2004 satire film Team America: World Police, a marionette representation of Moore surfaces as a suicide bomber who blows up Team America's headquarters inside Mount Rushmore. He is later described as a "giant socialist weasel." One of the makers of the film, Matt Stone, later stated that this representation was in response to Moore's placement of a South Park-style animation after an interview with Stone in Moore's film "Bowling for Columbine." They opined that this created the false impression that Stone (and his colleague Trey Parker, who together are popular largely through being the creators of South Park) created the animation, which he saw as "retarded." Stone later states that he does not "really hate the guy."

• In an episode of the television show Arrested Development, "The One Where Michael Leaves," an unnamed obese documentary film maker (revealed in a subsequent episode, "Out on a Limb", to have been a Michael Moore impersonator doing a bit for Jimmy Kimmel Live) approaches Lucile asking if she would enlist her son in the military. Michael Moore asked the same question in Fahrenheit 9/11.

• The 2004 Academy Awards opened with a satirical short film in which the host, Billy Crystal, traditionally re-enacts the most memorable scenes of 2003. Moore was depicted holding a camera amidst a battle (the Battle of the Pelennor Fields from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King film), and shouting, "Shame, shame on you hobbits, this war is fictitious!" followed by a crushing from an Olliphaunt. In a similar vein, the parody film "Fellowship 9/11" parodied Fahrenheit 9/11 using the Lord of the Rings films as its basis.

• MADtv comedian Paul Vogt is noted for his impersonations of Moore. In a 2003 skit, entitled "Bowling for Christmas," Vogt as Moore angrily accuses Christmas shoppers of supporting terrorism and Santa Claus of exploiting child labor. In each scene the inscription on Moore's baseball cap gets progressively more self-righteous: "Hero," "Saint," "Martyr" or the location of filming is more absurd: Barbra Streisand's Jacuzzi or Mick Jagger's home in Italy. Towards the end of the skit, Moore corners Barbara Bush who first believes he is a bear and later "the guy from Hollywood Squares" (Bruce Vilanch) and in the end beats him up.

• Moore lent his voice to a parody of himself on The Simpsons; he was depicted as showing up to Springfield Elementary School in support of a student strike. When interviewed by Kent Brockman, he offered statistics. When Brockman asked him for the statistics' source, Moore replied "Your mother!"

• The British television show Dead Ringers featured a segment in its 2004 "US election special" entitled "Michael Moore takes on Michael Moore," in which a Michael Moore impersonator satirizes Moore's documentary style and approach.

• In the 11th episode of Robot Chicken, "Toy Meets Girl", a stop-motion animated version of Moore hosts a "Where Are They Now?" documentary on the whereabouts of popular 1980s toy/cartoon characters such as the Masters of the Universe, ThunderCats and the Transformer Soundwave, now working as a portable toilet.

• In a September 2005 episode of the animated Family Guy series, titled "The Perfect Castaway," Peter recalls a farting contest with Michael Moore that develops into a parody of the "Dueling Banjos" scene from Deliverance. An episode of American Dad later depicted the opening of a new Michael Moore film in which he sleeps with Angelina Jolie on camera and Hailey leaves in disgust over Moore's "selling out."

• In the book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America by Bernard Goldberg, Moore is ranked number one.

• In the fourth season of the television show 24, Secretary of Defense James Heller asks his son Richard to "Spare me your sixth grade Michael Moore logic."

• In the Season 3 Thanksgiving PSA of Red Vs Blue, Michael Moore is referenced twice. First, he's quoted as being "a fat guy from Michigan" evacuating people in the blue states to France and Canada (because Bush won the 2004 election) as a Communist logo appears in a voice bubble. Later, while Sarge is quoting the recipe for his turducken, he calls Moore a "bigger turkey."

Appearances in other documentaries

• Michael Moore's brief appearance in Alex Jones' Martial Law: 9/11 Rise of the Police State, Alex Jones prompts Michael Moore for an answer as to why he did not mention any of the real issues about the September 11, 2001 attacks in his film Fahrenheit 9/11. Specifically, why Michael Moore did not mention why NORAD stood down. Michael Moore's reply was simply, "Because it would be Un-American".

• Moore appeared in the documentary The Yes Men, a documentary about two men who pose as the World Trade Organization. He appears during a segment concerning working conditions in Mexico and Latin America.

• Moore was also interviewed for the 2004 documentary, The Corporation. One of his highlighted quotes was, "The problem is the profit motive: for corporations, there's no such thing as 'enough'."

His published work

List of books

• Moore, Michael (1996). Downsize This! Random Threats from an Unarmed American. Perennial (Harper Edition). ISBN 0060977337.
• Moore, Michael; & Glynn, Kathleen (1998). Adventures In A TV Nation. Perennial. ISBN 0060988096.
• Moore, Michael (2002). Stupid White Men ...and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation!. Regan Books. ISBN 0060392452.
• Moore, Michael (2003). Dude, Where's My Country?. Warner Books. ISBN 0446532231.
• Moore, Michael (2004). Will They Ever Trust Us Again?. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0743271521.
• Moore, Michael (2004). The Official Fahrenheit 9/11 Reader. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0743272927.

List of films

• Roger & Me (1989)
• Pets or Meat: The Return to Flint (1992) (TV)
• Canadian Bacon (1995)
• The Big One (1997)
• And Justice for All (1998)
• Lucky Numbers (2000)
• Bowling for Columbine (2002)
• Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) "Palme d'Or" in Cannes
• Sicko (projected for 2006)
• Fahrenheit 9/11½ (projected for 2007)

List of TV series

• TV Nation (1994)
• The Awful Truth (1999)

Quotes

• "[T]he majority of Americans supported this war once it began and, sadly, that majority must now sacrifice their children until enough blood has been let that maybe -- just maybe -- God and the Iraqi people will forgive us in the end." - from an April 14, 2004 open letter on his website
• "Our young people who go off to war and who join the service, we need to honor them because they're willing to risk their lives to protect us, to defend us, so we can have this way of life. And the agreement that they make with us is that we never send them into harm's way unless it is absolutely necessary. I think most Americans - I just saw the latest poll today - 54% now believe that invading Iraq wasn't the wisest thing to do - it wasn't certainly in self-defense. You weren't threatened; I wasn't being threatened, and that's the only time, because ultimately if it was your child…would you give up your child to secure Fallujah?" - On the television program Late Night with Conan O'Brien, June 25, 2004
• When asked what he thought about when he was called a traitor, he responded, "I'm an Eagle Scout and I'm overweight."
• Describing Americans to the Daily Mirror, "They are possibly the dumbest people on the planet... in thrall to conniving, thieving, smug pricks. We Americans suffer from an enforced ignorance. We don't know about anything that's happening outside our country. Our stupidity is embarrassing. National Geographic produced a survey which showed that 60 percent of 18-25 year olds don't know where Great Britain is on a map. And 92 percent of us don't own a passport."
• "The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the revolution, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow - and they will win."
• "If someone did this to get back at Bush, then they did so by killing thousands of people who DID NOT VOTE for him! Boston, New York, DC, and the planes' destination of California - these were places that voted AGAINST Bush!" -- Michael Moore, September 12 2001.
• "There is no terrorist threat. There is no terrorist threat. Yes, there have been horrific acts, of terrorism and yes there will be horrific acts again. But that does not mean that there's some massive terrorist threat." -- Power Center, Michigan, at unveiling of Dude, Where's My Country? (2003)
• "I think Bin Laden is under the protective watch of the United States, I think our government knows where he is and I don't think we're going to be capturing him or killing him any time soon."
• "It would be unamerican", in response to a question as to why the standing down of the NORAD aerial forces on September 11th, 2001 was not included in his movie Farenheit 9/11 (as seen in Alex Jones's amateur documentary Martial Law: 9/11 Rise of the Police State).
• "Well I failed to bring Roger to Flint. As we neared the end of the twentieth century, the rich were richer, the poor, poorer. And people everywhere now had a lot less lint, thanks to the lint rollers made in my hometown. It was truly the dawn of a new era." Roger & Me
• It was the morning of April 20th 1999, and it was pretty much like any other morning in America. The Farmer did his chores. The milkman made his deliveries. The President bombed another country whose name we couldn't pronounce. Out in Fargo, North Dakota, Cary McWilliams went on his morning walk. Back in Michigan, Mrs Hughes welcomed her students for another day of school. And out in a little town in Colorado, two boys went bowling at 6 in the morning. Yes, it was a typical day in the United States of America. - Bowling for Columbine

See also

• Michael & Me

External links

• Moore's Homepage
• Official Fahrenheit 9/11 Website - With trailer of the movie
• The Fahrenheit 9/11 War Room - Michael Moore's official response to critics of Fahrenheit 9/11
• Michael Moore at IMDb

Current events (fan sites and watch sites)

• Unofficial Michael Moore forums
• Michael Moore Online fan site with news, pro-Moore arguments and forums
• Moore Watch blog site run by three bloggers
• ThrowawayyourTV.com Michael Moore Archive

General criticism

• "Bowling For Truth" by Richard Bushnell
• "One Man, Two (voter) Registrations: Michael Moore simultaneously on voter rolls in New York, Michigan " by The Smoking Gun
• Spinsanity on Michael Moore
• "Fahrenheit 9/11 connects dots that aren't there" by Matt Labash, July, 2004
• "Michael Moore, Humbug" in City Journal
• Ralph Nader criticizes Moore who supported John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential Election instead of Nader.
• "Michael Moore Hates America", the movie Actually described by Variety as "Far more jocular, good-natured and thoughtful than Moore partisans might expect."
• "The Truth about Bowling for Columbine" by David T. Hardy
• "The lies of Michael Moore" in Slate by Christopher Hitchens
• "Fifty-Nine Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11" by Dave Kopel
• "War, Lies, and Videotape: A Viewer's Guide to Fahrenheit 9/11"
• "FahrenHYPE 9/11: You Knew It Was A Lie, Now You'll Know Why" - home page of a movie intended to debunk Fahrenheit 9/11
• "Propaganda Tactics & Fahrenheit 9/11" by Kelton Rhoads.
• Michael Moore: EXPOSED
• Sometimes Moore Is Less
• Less is Moore
• Moore is less
• "I'm with Stupid" - About Michael Moore and the ethical dilemmas of means and ends in American elections, by Marco Roth in N+1 magazine.

Defense articles

• "Conservatives Seized upon Faulty Report of Moore's Supposed Dual Voter Registrations" by Media Matters
• "Scarborough Lied in Attempt to Catch Michael Moore Lying" by Media Matters
• "NY Post Pointed to Comparisons of Michael Moore to Nazi-propaganda Filmmaker" by Media Matters
• "FOX Hosts Join Drudge Sidekick in Bashing Michael Moore" by Media Matters
• "Deception; Desperate Right Wing Attacks on Fahrenheit 9/11" a rebuttal of Dave Kopel's "59 Deceptions" by Anthony Wade

News features

• "Moore Mania Hotting Up" in The Guardian, June 11, 2004
• "Fahrenheit 9/11 gets help offer from Hezbollah" in The Guardian, June 17, 2004
• "Michael Moore Terrorizes the Bushies!" in Salon.com, June 23, 2004
• Celeb Moore ridicules Bush, Republicans The Daily Cardinal
• "Moore to Turn Guns on US Health System" in The Observer, June 27, 2004
• "Michael Moore, Ugly American" in Washington Post, July 13, 2004