The Ebert and McCain Show

[Q]

Published on Wednesday, September 1, 2004 by USA TODAY

The Ebert and McCain Show
The Good Soldier and Film Critic Delivers a Broadside
by Michael Moore


Poor John McCain.

Here's a guy I've always sort of liked, a courageous war hero reduced to carrying water for the Bush campaign.

So it was Monday night, as I sat in the press section — unbeknownst to Sen. McCain — when he switched from pro-war convention speaker to film critic. Out of nowhere, he began to attack my movie, Fahrenheit 9/11, calling me a “disingenuous filmmaker.” The problem is, he hasn't seen the movie, a fact he later admitted to Chris Matthews on MSNBC.

I know Republicans are mad that my film may have convinced just enough people to tip the balance in this election. Yet with all the serious issues facing our country, and right smack in the middle of an important speech about the need to catch the terrorists and continue the war in Iraq, McCain decided to turn the convention into the Ebert and McCain Show. He claimed that I portrayed Saddam's Iraq as an “oasis of peace.” Some of the 20 million who have seen the film must have wondered, “Did I miss that scene? I knew I shouldn't have gone out for those Goobers.” All I can imagine McCain was referring to was a brief cutaway just as President Bush announces the commencement of the bombing of Baghdad on March 19, 2003.

Human-rights groups say thousands of civilians were killed because of our bombing. I thought it would be worthwhile to show some of the faces of Iraqi people who might soon meet their death. I felt really bad for McCain standing there on the stage. The man wanted to be president. That dream was snuffed out during the 2000 primaries, when George W. Bush's supporters spread nasty rumors about what five and a half years in a North Vietnamese POW camp might have done to McCain's sanity.

Then there were the calls to potential white voters in South Carolina to inform them that McCain had a “black baby.” (He and his wife adopted a child from Bangladesh.) The Bush supporters also spread other rumors that questioned McCain's patriotism, even though the man was a decorated war hero while W. chose to … oh, let's not get into that again. Still, McCain has offered to soldier on for Bush. So how does Bush's campaign treat him? It doesn't tell him I might be in the press section, officially credentialed. It has him say some gibberish about my movie. Everyone then sees me, I start laughing my ball cap off, the crowd goes bananas, and poor McCain must think he said something funny or cool, so he says, “That line was so good, I'll use it again.”

Agghh!

--- http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0901-04.htm

[FlaIndie]

1. clap clap

I never really liked Moore's sometimes stretching of the truth into conspiracy theories, but he is dead on the money here!

[Disturbed]

2. Two films that...

scare the crap out of the Neo Fascists: "Farenheit 911" and "Control Room".

Msg. for the Neo Fascist from me. Eat shit and die!!!!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Michael

the mere fact that McCain dissed your film should tell you how much impact it has made, and how much it has scared the GOP to death!