Moore Says He Didn't Interview GM Head ("Anyone Who Says That Is A ... Liar")

Source: Associated Press

Moore Says He Didn't Interview GM Head
By JOHN FLESHER, Associated Press Writer
17 minutes ago

BELLAIRE, Mich. - Filmmaker Michael Moore gave people in the rural county where he lives an early look at his new film "Sicko" on Saturday, and had some harsh words for critics of the documentary that launched his career.

"Manufacturing Dissent," a film that accuses Moore of dishonesty in the making of his politically charged documentaries, alleges that he interviewed then-General Motors Corp. Chairman Roger Smith, the elusive subject of Moore's 1989 debut "Roger & Me," but left the footage on the cutting room floor.

"Anybody who says that is a (expletive) liar," Moore told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday after a showing of "Sicko," his take on U.S. medicine, in the northern Michigan village of Bellaire


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070617/ap_on_en_mo/people_moore

I can't wait to see this movie. We can make this a reality. :bounce:

the truth's that MM lays out in "Sicko"? :shrug:

(don't know/care whether it's true or not right now because how/why does it matter in light of this new material of 'Sicko'?)

Is the material in 'Sicko' correct or not?

Ohrightsure. :eyes:

Spewing crap as usual to obfuscate how sick and honorless the republicon corporate fat cats really are

Why do republicons HATE the truth?

....which is to make money off the backs of the poor. It has ALWAYS been this way, but this bunch takes it to a TOTAL GREEDY EXTREME!

THIS will be their downfall. Sooner rather than 'later', imo.

The Piltdown Man hoax has no place in the discussion of modern evolutionary theory, but if you want to raise the hackles of a bunch of fools dying to be told what to think, that old saw does just fine.

The obvious difference in this case is the hoax is also being perpetrated by the people who seek to discredit the truth.

But they're still only preaching to the choir.

it's not very clear, but that's how it reads.

I suppose I must have been really unclear, 'cause that's just the opposite of what I meant.

The thumpers like Jack Chick are still using Piltdown Man to try to discredit evolution, even though the scientists have completely forgotten about it. To the thumpers, it doesn't matter that the hoax is now completely irrelevant and has been for fifty years. If they can make their drooling audience believe it's an inconsistency, then they can sell them on the idea that the whole schmeel is a fake.

That's just what these conservatives are doing to Mike Moore. They're picking ant shit out of ten year old pepper and throwing it a the wall to see if it sticks, to mix a couple of metaphors. But it's still ant shit, and therefore insignificant if it sticks or not.

I had not realized anyone considered it to be "scientific" still, any more than Hans the counting horse. I should have known Piltdown was still being bandied about by the fundies as an example of why science doesn't work considering they can't seem to distinguish between Darwin's theory on the mechanics of evolution, and Evolution itself.

Sheesh.

So many times I find myself wondering about these people. I mean, I have my own little superstitions too, but I don't necessarily believe in them or discount science because of them. I have trouble imagining the kind of mental disconnect from reality they must use every day just to get through life.

'em in the ass and their little wimp bodies can't handle the TRUTH!

when they can't deny the facts about an issue they create a "controversy", most often baseless and untrue, to discredit the person they want silenced: the "Swift-Boat Veterans" being a perfect example. It's worked OH SO WELL for them over the years because of a media that's too damned lazy to check facts and is too chicken-shit to stand up to them (or is PART of the smear campaign to begin with). This type of crap drives me up a freaking wall! :grr:

I'm glad Moore is fighting back. These asshats need to be smacked down, and HARD! :mad:

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depends where on DU you look.

That crap drives me up the wall as well... ;-)

If anybody attacking a Republican was incorrect with his or her facts one time in their entire life, it discredits them from ever making a criticism of Republicans.

Cut 'em some slack.

:eyes:

....and watch as opening day approaches how the corporate, fascist, msm-media-machine makes Mike the issue and not the valid content of Sicko....

And tell others about it.

I am just waiting for the counter-propaganda that the affected industries that control and dominate our culture, (as if we were brave and free and had any voice) to create their responses to this documentary. It should be really interesting to see how they once again play their cards that rely on the trust and gullibility that they bank on from day to day.

The question is: Will we allow this naivety to continue? It was the kind that allowed Ronald Reagan's LP to reach into the hearts and minds of people all over America so they could avert the great threat of SOCIALIZED medicine, (read: Communism). It was the kind of child-like thinking that allowed Nixon to push the HMO's on people so they would think that they were getting the best when they were getting a system that made more money on less and less care.

We cannot blame others for their ignorance because, if we know, we can take the time to put aside our elitist, know-it-all rhetoric and spread the word, educate and inform. That is a task and a responsibility and guess what? Somebody else took the time and invested their money into misleading them and pulling the wool over their eyes to get all this bogus, profit-motivated parasitism in place.

From there, we see our failure and lack of activism. We are still The People. We can take the responsibility, one-by-one, day-by-day. We could at least try to point the finger at ourselves and then SEE where the real answers and solutions now lie. They certainly don't come from wealthy, bought and payed for politicians playing a confidence game that is entrenched around their endeavors. They play for power and money and recognition. OK, then what are we playing for and why? From there, we have to wonder why we play so easily into something that is only proving to take us down an endless tunnel of debt and loss with not hint of a safety net or hope for an equitable and comfortable life. We are letting our children and future generations down in a way that may prove to be historical if we cannot grapple with our own blame, face it, and act, act, act. Act like it matters more than anything else.

Confession: when I saw Bowling for Columbine I had to walk out during the end part of the film. No matter what political points he was trying to make, no matter how justified he might have been, I couldn't stand watching him beating up on poor, Alzheimer's-ravaged, retarded Charlton Heston.

So yes, there are matters of taste that Moore can be called upon. He's also got an ego that...well, seems more than healthy. But he has always seemed scrupulous about documenting his sources and his facts. And there are a lot of corporate and political people that want to smother dissent who would love to see Moore wacked.

Even if he did exaggerate about this supposed meeting, at least it didn't result in over 3000 needless deaths.

He was 100 percent coherent and if he was ravaged by Alzheimer the interview would have never happened.

Ego--- LOL... that my friend is a classic repub talking point. Not to say you are--- but why repeat such utter bullshit?

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I clearly remember the movie. Moore did not insinuate that they had the convention in Denver because of Columbine.

They had the event, fact.

I actually could care less if the NRA had the event afterwards or not. I guess he felt it was important to put it in the film, I am glad he did because it shows a fact of what the NRA did. The viewer can then decide for themselves the significance. In my case it was so what. It was another small piece of the bigger picture which points to a cultural problem. A culture of barbarism and violence to solve problems. Gun control in my opinion doesn't actually do anything to solve that and I think the point made in the movie is exactly that. In countries like Canada there are guns all over the place too and you do not have the violence we have here. Nor does their government use violence for political means like the government in the U.S.

Look at the media headlines posted everyday. Recently after the unrest in Gaza, I believe it was CNN.com posted a story link that said something along the lines of "U.S. Military options in Gaza Limited". Right out of the gate for anything that happens with Iran, Gaza, Syria, Russia, All third world countries they go to how are we going to get to use the military option. This is a cultural problem that people need to work on fixing.

People kill people'! I must say...I was taken back a little when you said that there are guns all over the place in Canada. That's news to me.

And please, explain the "legal issues" that would have prevented an announcement at the event itself that the convention would be rescheduled.

Also, I'd love to hear your definintion of "occasionally".

In a way it is very karmic, and may be seen as a cautionary tale for all those who are out there fighting the same hypocritical, savage battle that he fought.
Sorry...becoming old, or even dying, does not erase or change the quality of the evil deeds that one did in one's earlier life.
All the Nazi death camp guards, and men such as Adolph Eichman were tried for their crimes decades after they were committed. To this day, when someone is found to have been part of the Nazi death camp regime, they are deported from the US, and could face trials for their deeds...no matter how old or enfeebled they are.
If they could have, most of them would have continued dong exactly what they were doing...until they were caught. Inhumanity remains inhumanity.

I'd suggest you hate guns and the NRA so much that you'd be willing to beat up an old, mentally confused...yeah, I'll say it, retarded...old man. That's the first step down the slippery slope that led to Abu Gareb and Auschwitz.

I repeat: I think Moore's message was right and proper. I think his tactic - picking on this particular retarded old man - was offensive. And as I said elsewhere, it might have been less effective, but more acceptable, to attack another gun lobby PR guy like Ted Nugent.

And, Ted Nugent has nothing on Terry and James Nichols. Ted Nugent is a RW gun toting wingnut wannabe compared to the Nichols brothers. MKJ

(P.S. I'm referencing the Nichols, because a significant part of the movie is a rather disconcerting interview with James, by Moore, in case you might not have actually seen the movie.)

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MKJ

I guess it would only be fair to pry it out of his "cold dead hands," or whatever he said. or was that just empty rhetoric?

We didn't find out that Heston had Alzheimer's until Aug 9, 2002.

Charlton Heston has Alzheimer's symptoms

August 9, 2002 Posted: 5:24 PM EDT (2124 GMT)

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/08/09/heston.illness/

I seriously doubt that Michael Moore was aware that Heston had Alzheimer's when he interviewed him. It isn't always obvious. It might be obvious to someone who knows him but not people who casually come in contact with them. My friend's dad has Alzheimer's and he goes to Walmart with his wife and talks to people and they don't know. But he calls his wife "that woman" and has called the police to tell them that "this woman (who has been married to him for 50 years) won't leave".

They'd paid for their facility, and were obligated to make the full payment whether they held the meeting or not - ditto, for paid speakers. IOW, the ONLY reason they went on with it was because of the money.

No one can obligate you to hold a convention - just to pay for what was contracted. They wanted to make their money - which isn't surprising because the NRA is a gun manufacturers lobby. To say there were legal issues is disingenuous at best.

ON EDIT: That said, it was clear that Heston was expecting an entertainment industry interview, not an NRA related sneak attack - he was obviously somewhat impaired and hurt by what it wound up being. Dementia is an altered state and you can't just shift out of it. That's the one thing I ever found objectionable in any of Moore's work.

From the following website: http://www.hardylaw.net/Truth_About_Bowling.html

Fact: At Denver, the NRA cancelled all events (normally several days of committee meetings, sporting events, dinners, and rallies) save the annual members' voting meeting -- that could not be cancelled because the state law governing nonprofits required that it be held.

MKJ

Good grief! You aren't allowed to have ideas that run contrary to the conventional DU wisdom right here on DU. Didn't anybody tell you that?

Wadr, I think you let the NRA off the hook when you say their legal commitments kept them from relocating. Nobody schedules such events without one or more escape clauses. And even if there were none, clear-headed thinking--which doesn't seem to exist in the NRA--would have noticed that Columbine was one of the nation's great disasters and would never, ever have followed through with such a massive insult.

In fact, it's most probable the sociopaths who run the NRA went ahead with that gathering precisely to stick it to those suggesting further rational regulation of firearms.

The NRA's rabid partisanship on the two remaining vital issues--banning automatic weapons and banning gun show sales--speaks volumes about their lack of social responsibility.

You're right that Moore exaggerates. That's a temptation hard to resist when one is doing advocacy work.

On the other hand, our society is deluged with right wing ideologues propagating their lies to warp the views of our easily manipulated voting public. It's nice to have some opposing weaponry.

Whatever his shortcomings, Moore's prodigious abilities to focus on and get inside some of the worst and most intractable of US public problems is commendable. Likewise his commitment to getting his journalism into the public sphere.

Belated welcome to DU!:hi:

And, the commonality of views, for the most part, is why I come here.

I am the contrarian, impassioned political junkie within my family, friends and coworkers. I debate folks on a regular basis in an effort to open their eyes to the hijacking of everything good this country represented. I appreciate being able to escape the almost ubiquitous RW talking points one encounters in common discourse these days.

It's nice to share views and debate, often vigorously, those who hold the same general principles dear...that no one is "superior" to anyone else and we're all in this together.

MKJ

Yeah, right. Whatever. :eyes:

Name calling is lame. If you have an argument with somebody, argue with them. Accusing someone of being in a hated category without addressing the substance of what they say is a standard propaganda technique and doesn't have a place in a serious conversation.

However, one of the reasons I don't come around here nearly as much as I used to is because I see what are very literally right-wing talking points being spouted as the truth by people who ought to know better (ergo, liberals, otherwise known as the reality-based community). A very specific example the other day was someone who actually called herself a Democrat repeating the old lie about liberals "enabling crime" because people were daring to discuss reasons why Wally World has such a terrible problem with shrinkage and shoplifting.

I agree with you that people have always been a little too quick to yell, "troll!" and that it doesn't really further dialogue, but in the face of such blinding, unadulterated stupid, all you can do sometimes is call bullshit. Also, especially among some of the newer DUers, they may not even realize they're parroting RW talking points on various issues (just look at any of the race, gender or sexual orientation threads in GD sometime). I think there's a very fine line between saying someone's spouting RW bullshit and calling them a Republican shill, though, and it's easily crossed. (I have no problem with the former, but the latter needs to not happen so often).

I specifically said I wasn't calling him a repuke but that what he said was a repuke talking point. Tough time with reading comprehension eh?

Her mind died long before her body, which is the tragedy of the disease.

I don't care that Moore was politically right in the issue. I believe he was right in what he said; that it isn't gun ownership as much as our paranoia about each other that causes gun deaths. And yes, Heston was the biggest figurehead in the NRA and pro-gun movement, and it was logical that Moore attacked him.

But he was a sick old man with a dying mind, and I maintain that attacking Heston was beating up on a sick old man. Moore could've gone after the second-biggest person in the movement - maybe Ted Nugent, that pretentious one-time rocker who blathers on about hunting like it was better than sex. But no, Moore had to leave the Aqua Teen Hunger Force to take on Nugent. (Comparing him to Jesus, by the way.)

Nugent is all talk.

Nichols set off bombs with his brother and Tim McVeigh.

Nichols waved around a loaded hangun during the Moore interview.

I guess Nugent's bombast could be just as scary, though. :shrug: MKJ

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IS/WAS a dangerous asshole.

All Moore did was slightly exaggerate Heston's normal insanity in order to expose it for the pseudo-religious bullshit it is!

.....the asshole should have shut his mouth long ago, if he was suffering from Alzheimers, or not!!

beating up on him at all.

He was asking standard issue questions and Heston decided to go nuts. Moore seemed kind of stunned by it too.

He certainly wasn't badgering him in any way that I recall . . .

Heston's comment was basically that racism and ethnic division have fueled violence in the USA. When Moore suggested his comments were racist he obviously didn't have the presence of mind for a quick comeback.

showed himself to be the pathological, gun nut, raving racist lunatic he is.

Moore did nothing more than hand that asshole the rope he needed to hang himself.

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Wasn't it revealed after Moore gave that interview that Heston had Alzheimers?

Sort of an excuse to defend Heston's white supremacy?

And I'm still overwhelmed, angry, sad, scared and a few other emotions.

The truth should hurt them after what they've done to us.

Who and what have we become indeed.

All I can think to do is get as many people as I can to see this movie. I'm already starting on the republican side of my family. They have a real issue with anyone uttering the words Michael Moore, so I had to tell them that Faux gave it an great review and believe it or not, that actually got them interested. I don't know how much sadder that actually makes me. All I can hope is that when they see this for themselves they will put their politics aside.

I think that we in this nation have a cultural memory of "we" -- of who we once were -- and Moore goes way, way, way beyond medical care in this movie in very effective ways to remind us of that possibility. I think the cultural memory of "we" is part of both parties and it could be the bridge between the parties that we need right now.

Go JTFrog! :applause:

countries actually laughed at him. Not because of what he was doing, but because he kept asking where to go to pay.

I just can't imagine my brother who has four young daughters and no health care seeing this movie and walking away the same person who argued with me on the phone last night. Just the first call of many to come.

American Dream my arse.

Thanks for the encouragement :)

knowing they can't insure them? I hope none of those kids gets really sick. Even pneumonia at this point could break him.

Like many people in this country.

I really do.

Things are getting worse and worse. And people bury their heads in the sand until it hits them personally.

They had a great movie house there. (20 years ago)


Sicko would have gone over well there when i was there because the largest employer was a ski hill that paid minimum benefits because their workers were considered seasonal.

Just make something up and expect people to believe it. Eventually it gets repeated often enough to become a "fact."

I'm sure they're gearing up for lots of these kinds of smears.

K&R

I remember Samantha Bee interviewing the film makers of Manufacturing Dissent for a segment on the Daily Show - I think the gag was that Michael Moore appeared in the background of every shot, as they blathered on and on about how much they despised him because he wouldn't show up to be skewered by them.

It was pretty funny... though they don't have a clip of the interview on the Manufacturing Dissent site (they should and I'm free to despise them for deliberately excluding it).

Tut-tut

on a non-political board, where everyone was griping about their health providers, I mentioned seeing Sicko yesterday and encouraging others to see it. The original poster went into a tirade about Moore being a grandstander, etc etc. I told her about the end of the film, where Moore gave the anti-Moore website guy the $12K anonymously. I then told her what the guy said in response--and then said:
1. Moore could have simply cited what it said on the webpage and left it at that-it was ironic enough.
2. Once he realized Moore had given him the money, the webpage guy could have sent the balance back, but he chose not to.

I've only seen F911 and Sicko, and some of the portions of Moore's TV shows, so I can't comment on his other work. But I will say that I feel Sicko is well done and pretty accurate. I have a doctor who is always having trouble getting paid by insurance companies because they want to decide treatment options and also what prescriptions they will cover--and how these decisions often work against the best interest of the patient!

NOT! That whole crew is part of what had made "swiftboating" into a verb that we all understand.

as a senior in college (LONG after the film's original debut). My sociology prof showed the movie in a class called "Social Problems."

That was my first experience w/ MM, and since that time, I've been "hooked," if you will.

:)

Manufacturing Dissent is an obvious rip-off of Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent.

Which shows how the media manipulates the information available to produce a specific response by their viewers. Keep bad things that the USA has done out of the public eye so that any government level hypocrisy goes unseen.

The braindead Limbaugh listeners will eat up this new "documentary" about Moore, but could never understand the concepts put forth in the Chomsky movie, or Moore's films.

How come Fahrenhype 911 was never a hit?

If there are so many listeners (and apparently there ARE) why doesn't that translate into box-office successes for these (and other) film makers?

And if the "liberals" are so few (and gullible) how does Moore do it?

Pretty simple: he is VERY entertaining -- I think his biggest flop was "Canadian Bacon" - ever seen it? It was pretty bad: sophomoric Hollywood "humor" (sidebar: at the time, Moore said he wished he could make films like "Die Hard" that audiences loved).

Tut-tut

I enjoyed the hell out of that.



(Paraphrasing)

Where did they take her?

To the capital.

They took her to Toronto!

Um, our capital is in Ottawa.

Yeah, Ottawa, right.

it's because he is actually entertaining, like him or not. It's not easy to make a documentary, it's even harder to make a watchable, entertaining one that stars yourself. Moore is a performance artist whois also an above average documentarian and has chosen to use his gifts to highlight societal problems. yes, he's outrageous, that's the point.

Consent," in which he shows how "market forces" collude to allow the powerful to get their message out while suppressing countering views and even the will of the majority.

It is probably the most important work in understanding the media in the US since Marshall McClune (sp?).

Anyone who would diss Chomsky's work in this way is not to be trusted.

I know, because I saw I for sale at B&N two yeas ago. Flipped through the contents, didn't get much past that. Anyone know the name of the book?

About 880 people paid $40 per ticket to watch the sardonic and sometimes heart-rending indictment of American health care. For an additional $60, they could attend a party with Moore at a restaurant across the street, where he autographed film posters, surgical gloves and even bandages.

The money from the premiere went to charity.

Come to Indiana Mr. Moore

Bush can kiss my (_I_) !

If Smith did an interview with MM during the filming, why didn't Smith speak up about this sometime during the 15 years or so that this controversy has rained down on his head?

Cat got your tongue, Roger?

Is there any answer to this question from the anti-Moore documentarians?

If not, then this allegation is totally indefensible.

- B

and he would have jumped at the chance to verify the notion that his part of an interview wound up on the floor.