Monday, May 17, 2004

Moore Lies: The bleats of liberals are getting louder, what with the problems in Iraq and, now, the release of Michael Moore's new Bush-bashing flick Fahrenheit 9/11. Now, they say, the truth shall be revealed.

Except the film's premise appears to be based on mistruth. I've never seen the film (few people have), but Alan Murray, a CNBC and Wall Street Journal political correspondent, has reviewed an official synopsis and compared it to reality. Unsurprisingly, Michael Moore's version of reality differs.

Alan Murray gives his account in his May 11 column in WSJ. I can't link to the story, because the paper requires a subscription. But I'll go ahead and link to a site that violates WSJ's copyright and reposts the entire article for free:

The film explores, among other things, President Bush's "close personal friendships and business ties with the bin Laden and Saudi royal families" and culminates "in the decision to allow bin Laden family members to fly out of the country days [after Sept. 11, 2001] without FBI questioning." Mr. Moore makes the same charge in his book, "Dude, Where's My Country?" "While thousands were stranded and could not fly," he writes, "if you could prove you were a close relative of the biggest mass murderer in U.S. history, you got a free trip to gay Paree!" This would be a shocking charge . . . if it were true. But it isn't.

The Saudi flights -- including "Air Laden" -- have been investigated exhaustively by the 9/11 Commission, which carries no water for the resident. Staffers found that there were indeed six chartered flights, carrying 142 people, most of whom were Saudi nationals, which left the U.S. between Sept. 14, 2001, and Sept. 24, 2001. But contrary to Mr. Moore's claims, not one left until after commercial airspace reopened and normal flights resumed. Moreover, the Federal Bureau of Investigation screened all passengers to ensure that no one of interest to various terror investigations was aboard.

[...]

The bad news is that in today's freewheeling media environment, consumers seem increasingly unable to distinguish truth from fiction, news from polemic, reality from fantasy. The danger isn't that people won't see Mr. Moore's film. The danger is they will see it . . . and believe it.

Alan Murray publishes a report in WSJ every Tuesday. He's become a favorite of mine ever since he declared himself to be a "Raging Moderate" who is fed up with both the Republican and Democratic parties. Yes, our numbers are growing.