Bowling for Credibility

[Langenator]

Mike Moore is so far gone that even the well left-of-center SF Chronicle can see his hypocracy.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/10/30/EDG0R2LB101.DTL

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EDITORIAL
Bowling for credibility

Thursday, October 30, 2003

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MICHAEL MOORE, the polemic filmmaker who likes to wear his "progressive'' politics on his plaid sleeves, has made a fortune from bashing doyens of corporate greed. But apparently the provocative Moore doesn't mind the perks of celebrity -- even when they bear the label of big-time corporate America.

Moore recently touched down in California as part of his national book tour. He's traveling in style -- in a private jet provided by Time Warner, and in SUVs courtesy of his publisher, Warner Books. The company also threw in some bodyguards -- as we know from his movies, America is a pretty darn dangerous place.

For his part, Moore sees no contradiction between his private life and his public image, suggesting that the only reason he's feeding at the corporate trough is because it's there. "I would never pay for this,'' Moore told the Los Angeles Times, adding that the irony is not lost on him.

When you make your living bashing malicious corporate CEOs, it's best not to remind people that you're using giant media companies to carry your message.

After all, the bottom line is all about profits, not prophets.

 

[Mute]

"I would never pay for this,'' Moore told the Los Angeles Times, adding that the irony is not lost on him.

IOW, on top of everything else, he's a freaking moocher and a parasite as well.

 

[El Tejon]

Did anyone ask if his bodyguards were armed?

Guns are for me, not thee, serf.

 

[Justin]

Wow. Moore isn't just a liar and an intellectual looter, he's a real-life one, too. Guess he's suffering from Rage Against the Machine syndrome.

 

[Mark Tyson]

Guess he's suffering from Rage Against the Machine syndrome.

You mean the disease wherin spoiled college brats adopt an armor of indignant outrage in order to feel important, while allegedly fighting for the rights of the oppressed inner city minority that they have little real experience with?

 

[Nightcrawler]

I think you nailed it, MT.

When I was in high school, I drew a "rage against the machine" comic. It featured an alternative-rocker looking fellow, complete with wallet chain and unwashed hair, kicking a pop (soda) machine, because it ate his dollar.

Pretty clever for a 16 year old, if I do say so myself.

 

[Langenator]

Lyrics from an Oingo Boingo song, the name of which escapes me:

"You're just a middle class socialist brat,
From a suburban family and you've never really had to work.
Now you tell me that you've got to get back,
To the struggling masses, whoever they are.
You talk, talk, talk about their struggling and pain,
Your mouth is bigger than your entire brain."

Actually, sounds like a rather good description of Howard Dean's supporters.

 

[wingnutx]

Langenator- if you get a chance, check out the song "I Don't Care About Nicaragua" by Screeching Weasel.

"You say that you hate capitalism, and you won't compromise,
But when you're out of cigarettes..."

 

[Sven]

Has anyone turned the Moore equation back against him? Tried to debate-assault him in a staged interview? I'd love to see how he reacts when he gets a taste of his own medicine.

"Michael: are your bodyguards armed?"

 

[El Tejon]

Screeching Weasel!!!

Those are my neighbors! Rock on, wing.

 

[RKCheung]

Has anyone turned the Moore equation back against him? Tried to debate-assault him in a staged interview? I'd love to see how he reacts when he gets a taste of his own medicine.

This guy has been trying to get an interview w/ Moore. Of course, he is refusing to do one because he says he doesn't participate in any documentaries but his own despite contrary evidence.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Leftists believe only their lives are worth protecting.

 

[Mad Man]

My 75th post.

Has anyone turned the Moore equation back against him? Tried to debate-assault him in a staged interview? I'd love to see how he reacts when he gets a taste of his own medicine.

See this: http://www.brain-terminal.com/video/michael-moore/index.html

While Michael Moore was delivering his infamous speech at the Academy Awards, every single documentary filmmaker nominated for an Oscar stood behind him in solidarity. The fact that liberals dominate the industry is even more significant given the recent changes in campaign finance laws. Moore and his fellow filmmakers are free to embed their opinions in movies, but citizens who want to finance political ads will discover new limits to their freedom of speech. What would Mr. Moore have to say about this? To find out, I staked him out over the course of four days.

Scroll down to select the video format you wish to view.

Maloney is lucky. Moore had another guy thrown in jail for doing the same thing he does: http://overlawyered.com/archives/99sept2.html#990916a

September 16 -- Michael and me: a sequel. In New York, filmmaker Alan Edelstein may soon have to stand trial for criminal harassment, having lost a recent bid before a judge to get the charges dismissed. Mr. Edelstein stands accused of following a well-known businessman around with a video camera demanding a meeting to discuss whether the businessman had behaved harshly and arbitrarily in dumping employees from his payroll. Specifically, court documents allege that Mr. Edelstein, who had formerly worked for the businessman and was upset about his dismissal, had used a video camera to record an appearance by his former employer in upper Manhattan; that he placed about thirty phone calls and emails to the man's office demanding attention for his grievance; and that, using a bullhorn, he interrupted a speech the former employer was giving at the University of Massachusetts. Though a court ruled that these activities did not put the target of his stalking in reasonable fear as to his physical safety, they were undoubtedly a vexing annoyance and an intrusion on his privacy and quiet, and he's apparently pressing the criminal charges with all due vigor.

What lends piquancy to this tale is that the businessman/target insisting on invoking the law's severity is none other than Michael Moore, the left-wing filmmaker. Mr. Moore made his reputation with a film called "Roger and Me" in which he followed then-General Motors head Roger Smith around with a video camera to garden parties and other social events, loudly demanding that Smith answer questions about employee layoffs. More recently, as a TV producer, Moore trained a running video camera for weeks on the apartment of Zippergate figure Lucianne Goldberg, ignoring an outcry from those who found this a creepy invasion of Ms. Goldberg's privacy (Ziff-Davis, Newsweek (link now dead)coverage). In the recent proceedings, criminal court judge Arthur Schack indicated that if the charges were proven the law would be enforced against Mr. Edelstein with all due severity, but noted the irony of Mr. Moore's role as a complainant over "acts he once perpetuated". As with many public figures, it would appear Mr. Moore's Department of Dishing It Out is a lot bigger than his Bureau of Taking It. (Daniel Wise, "Fired Employee of Director Faces Harassment Trial", New York Law Journal, Aug. 30 -- full story) Update June 26, 2000 -- John Tierney column provides new details.

 

[Mad Man]

Here's the article from the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/regional/061700ny-col-tierney.html

June 17, 2000

When Tables Turn, Knives Come Out

By JOHN TIERNEY

Michael Moore made a name for himself pointing cameras at cruel corporate executives and other enemies of the people. He stalked the chairman of General Motors, sent people in Puritan costumes to Ken Starr's home and set up a Web site with a camera trained on a window of Lucianne Goldberg's apartment.

But Mr. Moore does not appreciate being bothered himself, as Alan Edelstein discovered. After he was fired by Mr. Moore, Mr. Edelstein tried borrowing the technique Mr. Moore had applied to G.M.'s Roger Smith in the film "Roger & Me": showing up uninvited with a camera and trying to get an answer from a boss who has decided to downsize.

Mr. Moore responded by filing a complaint with the New York police accusing Mr. Edelstein of aggravated harassment, menacing and criminal trespassing. As a result, Mr. Edelstein was arrested in March and spent nine hours in a cell at the Midtown North police station.

The district attorney's office later dropped the case. Now Mr. Edelstein is suing Mr. Moore, alleging malicious prosecution.

Mr. Edelstein, who is 39 and lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, was hired in 1998 as a producer on "The Awful Truth," Mr. Moore's show on the Bravo network. He was fired by a subordinate of Mr. Moore's after seven weeks.

"I was told that there was a budget crunch," he said, "but I don't think that was true. I later learned there were questions about my competence, which no one had ever raised when I was there. So I was angry at the way I was dealt with."

He had another reason for pursuing Mr. Moore with a camera. Mr. Edelstein, who was nominated for an Academy Award in 1985 for a documentary about a musician, was making a documentary incorporating scenes from his own life. "I thought footage with Michael explaining why I'd been fired would be useful for my own documentary," he said.

During a speech by Mr. Moore at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mr. Edelstein stood up with a camera and a bullhorn, a tool used by Mr. Moore outside the offices of executives. Mr. Edelstein demanded to know why he had been fired but didn't get an answer.

Mr. Edelstein twice showed up with his camera at the office of Mr. Moore's production company on West 57th Street near 11th Avenue. He filmed some employees but didn't manage to reach Mr. Moore. Later, he took his camera for a few more unsuccessful attempts to engage Mr. Moore at public events outside the office.

Mr. Moore says he complained to the police because he thought Mr. Edelstein had become a stalker who was a threat to Mr. Moore's family as well as his employees.

"If all he was doing was making his little film about me, I wouldn't have cared," Mr. Moore said. "But other people were at risk. This is a disgruntled employee who is a bit off his rocker. Everyone in the office felt there was considerable risk. The women in the office felt frightened for their own safety. Ask them. They'll tell you."

I ASKED several women, including one recommended by Mr. Moore, and none sounded scared. They said they found Mr. Edelstein a bit obsessive but otherwise mild-mannered and harmless.

"No one was remotely in fear of Alan in any shape or form," said Kyra Vogt, who was the office manager at the time Mr. Edelstein showed up with the camera. "Most of us thought the situation was comical. The only person who was paranoid was Michael. He couldn't deal with having someone follow him around."

When I asked Mr. Moore why the district attorney hadn't prosecuted someone who was supposedly so dangerous, Mr. Moore said he didn't know. "I wanted to pursue the case," he said, and he urged me to find out what had stopped justice from being done.

I did, and again Mr. Moore's version of reality did not jibe with the rest of the world's. A transcript from a hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court on Nov. 1, 1999, shows that Judge Ellen M. Coin dismissed the case after being informed by Assistant District Attorney Erin Koen that "the complaining witness does not want to proceed with the case."

Mr. Moore dismissed as "frivolous" Mr. Edelstein's lawsuit in Federal District Court in Manhattan. Mr. Edelstein said he was looking forward to his day in court.

"I want Michael Moore to be accountable for his false charges," Mr. Edelstein said. "He always grandstands about the First Amendment and artistic freedom, but when I attempted to do essentially what he does, he had me arrested and put in a cell for a day."

 

[Langenator]

pointing cameras at cruel corporate executives and other enemies of the people.

Amazing that they can say that with a straight face an not even any quotation marks. Wasn't "enemy of the people" what Communists called people they didn't like?

This is a disgruntled employee who is a bit off his rocker.

Ummm....pot, this is kettle...

The only person who was paranoid was Michael. He couldn't deal with having someone follow him around.

Like the earlier story said...his ability to dish it out is a whole lot bigger than his ability to take it.

Mr. Moore's version of reality did not jibe with the rest of the world's.

Folks, we have a winner for understatement of the year.

 

[Phil in Seattle]

You're just a middle class socialist brat

Capitalism

Track #8 from Boingo Alive Disc Two

 

[badgerrr]

The local cable access channel has a program run by the local lunatic left - tree huggers. Last week they aired footage of Mike Moore speaking to a Southern California student body....forget the school. So was able to sit back and absorb some of this guys pontification.

In the larger sense, I have to wonder if this guy isn't hurting his own cause a good deal more than he helps it? He does have a playful style which might be endearing, if it wasn't constantly spewing a childish hatred. But, in his moments of candor, (and he does have them) he admits to things that most leftists won't. His open hatred of white men really struck me. Makes me wonder how the white boys in that auditorium took to that?

All in all; if you have the opportunity to hear this guy rant - I recommend listening it it for a while. His red faced rages speak so openly to the true leftist hatreds/resentments.....it's a real experiance.