F911 - "the rest of the story"...always make this point

[txprog]

Sorry to quote a known A hole Paul Harvey but this is clearly Moore's intent. I've posted about this before, but this is so important, I think, so much a part of what this film is, that we must keep it at the forefront of our disucssion.

From beginning to end the film presents the side of the story the media refused to properly report. And we cannot tolerate any in the media who accuse Moore of not stating the other side when they themselves did not do it either!

Obvious examples:

*The military is great, navy seals rock. Not all of them, as the film shows. Some, maybe many, are brutal, de-sensitized, almost sub-human.
*Bush won the election, no blacks were really disenfranchised. Hardly.
*Bush is protecting the "homeland." Why then are hundred of miles of our coastline virtually unprotected?
*Bush is the man of integrity, an honest guy, a decisive leader. The film shows us for the phony lightweight that he is, corrupt to the core, tightly tied to the Saudi's and their oil-stained money and culture.
*Afghanistan was just about revenge and getting the Al Quaeda. There may have been other factors.
*Iraq was this horrid place completely dominated by SH, nobody could possibly be happy, life was miserable. Maybe not. People went about their business, children really laughed and played and were happy there, just like any other place.
*And the most obvious, of course, Iraq was about WMD's and our nation's security. It was about other things, and, like all wars, profit and greed is at the top of the list.

On and on, on one issue after another, Moore tell us the rest of the story. Never fail to make this point when discussing the film.

[vi5]

1. Let's put it this way...

If the media did there job, there would be no movie. There would be no reason to shell out $9 to see stuff that we had already seen.

If Moore is showing the whole clip of bush talking tough on terrorism INCLUDING him saying "now watch this shot", and the media only showed the tough talk part then which one of those is propaganda and only showing part of the picture?

[chookie]

2. If they'd done their jobs properly....

As Mike himself has said in response to criticism of bias -- if the media had done their jobs and reported on the facts, and not presented such an absurdly one-dimensional "RAH! RAH!" account of the events in Iraq, it would not have been necessary to make a film like F911.

But there was a script that everyone seems to have been following, that appears to have originated in the WH. War was to be seen as beautiful and noble and fun. It was supposed to be filled with "feel good" stories about heroes, and adventures like the rescue to Jessica Lynch. Deaths of servicepeople were to be dealt with emotionally and personally -- they were not to be analyzed or seen in the context of operations. When there were periods of little violence towards our troops, we were told that it was a sign that Bush's strategy was succeeding brilliantly. When there were periods of intense violence towards our troops, we were also told that it was a sign that Bush's strategy was succeeding brilliantly. The official story was that we were foolish children to be dwelling on things like bombings and ambushes, when there were so many positive things going on.

Rather than send in experienced diplomats and persons who possessed the skills of putting back together nations that had been damaged in wars, they sent in guys who specialized in business entrepreneurship, and PR specialists who were hired by our government to "spin" events for Arabs, to "sell" American occupation and "democratization" to them.

For any one of us who were following events, nothing that Moore presents is a startling revelation. All this information has been out there, but you had to find it and read it.

But something I have found interesting is that people who have NOT been following events in detail have managed on their own, *by only watching mainstream media*, to figure out what has really been happening. They read the media the way that ordinary Russians knew they had to "read" Pravda -- that is, between the lines. They have learned to trust their own judgement that what they were being fed was total bullshit, that the media representation of Bush, and the War on Terriers, and especially the Oil-aq war, was utterly false. I have been angry for years; I have been warning people about this administration for years -- but I see a fresh infusion of anger in America, as ordinary people realize ON THEIR OWN that they have been duped and that these people have gotten our nation into a great deal of trouble.

Certainly -- Moore has a point of view in this, and a perfectly valid one. Probably what has been most viscerally disturbing for the flying monkeys is to see their adored Chimperial Highness naked, as we see him. Moore doesn't put words into their mouths; he does not supply narrative, but rather lets the subjects speak for themselves. To dismiss the evidence before ones eyes and ears is to simply defend the indefensible.

[Karenina]

3. Excellent post Chookie!

:toast: The "game" has changed. The homepage piece is a MUST READ.

KIDS, THE "GAME" HAS CHANGED.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/04/06/29_unravel.html