Michael Moore on Letterman

[jdsmith]

The interview was pretty nerve-wracking, I thought. Letterman seemed intent on asking "But could someone question your findings?," which seemed to me to have arisen from the same meme that other corporate media have been following ("It can't be a documentary because it has a POINT OF VIEW"). I didn't expect Letterman to be so unpleasant (I'm not sure whether his audience was a genuinely anti-MM as it seemed after the commercial break--maybe they were just happy that this wriggle-in-your-seat conversation was coming to an end).

Was there discussion of this program on the day after (Saturday, June 19)? I wasn't around to see if there was, so I don't know whether I'm out of the loop in my reading of it.

[qazplm]

1. hey

if Moore cant answer that simple question then he shouldnt be making documentarys.

No need to get mad at Letterman for asking a fair question. ANY Documentary WITH A p.o.v. is FAIRLY asked those types of questions. MM needs to be prepared for those types of questions with calm, cool, reasoned and researched responses.

[Eric J in MN]

2. I think Letterman was being sincere in wondering about that

I think Letterman was being sincere in wondering about that.

Michael Moore said he's prepaered to debate any Repbulican about the movie.

I thought it was a good interview.

[rumguy]

3. A lot of people here on DU said the interview went well

[immoderate]

12. I saw the interview.

There is no doubt in my mind that Letterman was supporting Moore. Any interviewer has to throw in a "tough" question. Letterman fed him the question twice because the first time he didn't knock it out of the park.

Letterman gave Moore all he wanted. The audience applauded all of Moore's points. Can't see how it could have been much better for MM.

I find it's common here for people to misunderstand the purpose of an interviewer. The harder the questions, the more opportunity for the subject to do their thing. Easy questioners are most like to get criticized by the opposition.

--IMM

[rumguy]

15. Thanks

Dave would ask some of the tougher questions, no doubt. But I have no doubt he was respectful and even supportive of MM.

[immoderate]

27. Remeber Dave will be Dave

And his main reponsibilty is to make jokes. But Dave is smart enough to be a Democrat.

--IMM

[gatlingforme]

16. Very good point and I thought the interview went well -----

[anchorsaweigh7903]

4. And the Right Wingers complain about the media

Seems like the media wants to shred Michael Moore in to bits. Some are calling him a Benedict, some an activist...I just think people are too caught up in their own blind blind beliefs and aren't enlightened enough to view others opinions. Hell I'm in the Military, and I own all of Moore's works, I think he's a good man with a good point, but my peers look down upon me, because the rightists have labeled Moore as a martyr for what they call "commies". It's this stupidity that will ultimitely lead to the demise of all practical government, because of blind voting.

[mike1963]

5. Non illegitimus carborundum!

and welcome to DU!
:toast: :D

[anchorsaweigh7903]

7. Thanks

I won't let the bastards grind me down. Actually I'm grinding the bastards down myself, I'm running a grass roots Kerry campaign out of my home on base....and I'm surprised @ the following Kerry has here. Trust me guys and gals, its definitely grass roots though, the military is a tough nut to crack democratically!

[Kukesa]

18. Ahoy and Welcome to DU.

Keep up the good work with your Kerry grassroots effort. I live in an Air Force town that's swarming with right wingers and it's good to hear about the following you have in the USN.


:hi:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

8. He IS an activist, and that's a good thing. We need more like him. n/t

[rumguy]

10. Welcome!

I remember back in the early nineties when I found Roger and Me. I was floored. I made everyone I knew watch it. I was astounded that one man had the guts to create that kind of confrontational documentary.

What happens on the Daily Show is a direct result of Moore's pioneering work.

[Supply Side Jesus]

6. Disagree

I think Letterman was giving Moore the opportunity to tell the RW's this film is all fact, and not BS. Moore even threw down the gauntlet and challenges any republican/conservative/boot-licker to a debate regarding the films accuracy. So if Hannity has a problem, name the time and place, and Moore will clean his clock. (I think Maher's show would be ideal for such an event) The audience seemed very receptive to MM. When they showed the clip that ended with Bush saying "now watch this drive" the people let out a collective shocking gasp. Moore kicked some ass.

[gulliver]

9. It was a wash.

Moore got the vast majority of the applause. But Letterman did ask whether a Bushie could just take all of Moore's points and explain them away one by one, and that question got a lot of applause too.

I expect F911 to be a wash unless Moore uses the money from it wisely. Notice that Democrats are not exactly lining up to defend Moore. Focusing on Bush's Saudi connections was probably a mistake. Those connections stink to high heaven, but it is asking too much of people to expect them to go along with Moore on that particular ride.

I'm hoping that Moore does a director's cut DVD of F911 and then advertises it (including new footage) throughout the rest of the campaign. People need to see Bush for who he truly is.

[bossfish]

13. The Saudi connections are the most important part.

And not just the Bushes, although they are in the forefront.

It is the USA's relationship with the Saudis overall. We're addicted to their oil. They're addictied to the money. The populace seems tense. Terrorists are funded and looked after.

I think and HONEST assessment of our relationship with the Kingdom is long overdue.

[gulliver]

17. It could turn out to be good.

I shouldn't prejudge I guess. I agree with you 100% that it would be very good for our world if people took a look at what we have to do for oil. Can it be sustained? Are we poisoning our country's reputation, hurting our environment, ...? Exactly the sort of thing junkies do.

My concern is that attacking the Bush relationship with the Saudis might backfire. I would love it if the Dems somehow used Moore's film as a springboard to a discussion of the importance of conservation and decent dealing with other cultures and peoples. I'm not holding my breath, but I would be pleasantly surprised if that happened.

[BigDaddyLove]

24. I disagree that F911 will in any way be a wash...........

unless it's revenues are 'used wisely'....I'm not even entirely sure what you mean by that.

I do however wholeheartedly agree that people need to see Bush for who he really is, and I think that that is exactly the point of the film. For far too long the American populace has been spoon fed a misleading, propagandized image of Bush, and need to see the unvarnished truth.

Who ever still approves of Bush after seeing him clearly, is truly a danger to the rest of us and is not interested in the good of the Country....I think this film will be a litmus test.

[gulliver]

29. Revenues used wisely.

I'm hoping Moore will use the money he makes from F911 to give more airplay to Bush's story. There is much more to be told, and I'm hoping that Moore uses the money he makes to tell more of it. My fear is that F911 will hit, it will be taken as the ravings and distortions of a lefty-leaning lunatic, no one in the Dem party will defend it, and Moore will abandon the fight. If that happened, it would close off a major argument against Bush.

Moore has picked a hell of a fight. He is going to have to use every weapon in his reach to win it. If Bush survives this attack, Bush is stronger.

People don't believe what they see any more. Sadly, many people will let the Bushians pee down their leg and will believe it when they are told it is raining.

Bush is a real problem because this is a fight, not a contest of ideas. In a fight, reason does not prevail. That's why Bush makes it a fight all the time. Moore is going to have to fight Bush "The Chicago Way" to paraphrase Sean Connery from the Untouchables.

[Lefty48197]

11. The audience cheered Moore wildly

perhaps you and I were watching different programs?

[jdsmith]

20. I guess we were

I thought that, e.g., Miss Universe got a kinder treatment and more enthusiastic response.

[delhurgo]

14. He should be asked tough questions, because he

manipulates the audience with his movies. He manufactures scenes for instance. The best example of this is the scene in the bank in Bowling for Columbine. He set up the scene in advance so it could show him walking out of the bank with a gun. If he's gonna do stuff like that then he's gotta expect people to be skeptical.

Ive noticed a similar set-up in Fahrenheit 911 already. Not that its a real big deal, but the scene with the ice cream truck. He tries to make it appear that he just walks up to the truck and asks the guy to use it through the window you buy ice cream. In fact, I'm sure he set that up beforehand. No vender would just hand over his truck like that.

When he does stuff like that people are gonna feel sort of suckered. Thats what you hear in Letterman's questioning.

[anchorsaweigh7903]

19. but del---

You can't forget this is hollywood man. its not the filming, its the opinion and the message that moore is trying to get across.

[delhurgo]

23. I understand that.

He's as much entertainer as he is documentarian. I just think his fans should admit that as well and not always be so defensive when anyone questions Moore about his films - like the starter of this thread appears to be.

[jdsmith]

26. Not when "anyone" questions him

But when "everyone" questions him.

I'm very aware that Moore is an entertainer, that he is, perhaps, more of an entertainer than journalist (I'd go to, e.g., Greg Palast for more of the straight scoop).

[BigDaddyLove]

28. The infamous 'bank' scene................

Clearly he edited out the time between his opening his account and his walking out with a gun....so what?

The point of the scene was that you can get a free gun just by opening an account in that bank.

Even if it took two weeks to get your gun, don't you think it's odd that a bank is giving away guns to those who open checking accounts as a way to drum up business?

[kerry-is-my-prez]

21. Letterman was actually asking that so Moore could "smack" that down.

If you have seen Letterman interview politicos that he agrees with - he always gives them a platform. I get the impression that he's kind of "working with them." I don't think he was being hard on Moore at all.

[Protected]

30. That was my thought as well...

Dave gave a decent interview. I'm surprised my Sinclair-owned affiliate let it air!

[jdsmith]

22. Understand that I'm not questioning MM's technique

Since R&M he has worked as a satirist, using fictive techniques to arrive at a more powerful statement of the truth than he'd get if he were, for instance, working with PBS.

Not understanding when a satirist is satirizing and when she or he is being forthright is a common RW technique for defusing satire: "If Al Franken lies to Ashcroft on Harvard stationery, then how can we trust him when he says that the Wellstone memorial was 99% nonpartisan"?

And I thought that Letterman was missing the complexity of MM's art--reducing F911 to a deadly earnest joke, a fiction, an agit-prop, but not all of them at once (which is what I assume it'll be). Cf. this article from the NYT (NOT the paper of record anymore, but one that gets pushed out there when some dip wants you to accept its meme-pushing as awakening lefty conscience): http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/20/movies/20SHEN.html?hp

[sendero]

25. I stumbled upon..

.... this interview, I rarely watch Letterman. I thought it went very well. MM made many great zinger points which almost all got spontaneous applause. Letterman was asking some tough questions, but so what? MM handled them well. I did not get the impression that Dave was out to skewer MM, he was just giving him an opportunity to respond to criticisms he will be hearing a lot.

[Darth_Ole]

31. I go the impression that Letterman was very impressed with Moore.

But asking if his information and sources are credible and whether anyone can honestly challenge his documentary, was completely fair by Letterman. Someone better be challenging his sources and information b/c it's a documentary!

I think Michael Moore is gonna be on the Daily Show and that should be good b/c Jon Stewart is a great liberal but he's extremely intelligent and has a firm grasp of the issues.