Michael Moore

[The Man]

I agree with a lot of what Moore says, but I don't always agree with how he says it. He has never claimed that his movies are unbiased documentaries, so anyone who expects them to present both sides of an argument is simply holding an unrealistic expectation of his work. I do think he would have more credibility if he did present both sides of the argmuents, though.

However, I think it's terribly amusing to see the right blow a gasket every time his name is mentioned. Someone posted a recent piece of his regarding the Hurricane Katrina response on FG, and then the reactions of a few rather stereotypical neocons to that piece on another board. Most of them consisted of nothing more than "ZOMG HOW DAER HE CRITICIZE TEH PRESIDENT," and another of them contained the entirely baseless assertion that Moore was great at criticizing and poor at actually bringing about changes (Moore had, I believe, raised twenty-something million dollars to aid victims of the disaster).

I've yet to see the frequently cited "Moore = Ann Coulter of the left" argument validated by examples of Moore calling for the assassination of journalists or politicians, by the way. That alone leads me to suspect that many of the people who criticize his works for lack of objectivity aren't being entirely objective themselves.