Just a thought on Michael Moore and the release of the Abu Graib pics

CBS releases the Abu Graib picks, supposedly over the objection of the US.

A month later, Michael Moore's film Farhenheit 911 reveals photos of prison abuse outside the walls of Abu Graib. Moore's filmers captured the footage independent of the CBS photos.

When asked about MM's film, the White House spokesfolks claimed that it was all either lies or old news.

Now, back up. Pretend CBS never released the photos. The first Americans learned of the abuse was Michael Moore's film. Imagine the shock and outrage, and imagine how much that outrage would legitimize the rest of Moore's film.

See where I'm going? Bush wanted those photos out there, so he could act horrified, then "solve the problem," and thus gut some of the shock of Moore's film. Now Moore's film looks like a rehash, rather than groundbreaking.

Not saying it will work. But do you think that could be their strategy?

that those scenes would be in Moore's film?

they could have known about Moore's film crews being in Iraq.

This theory could work if his film crews were known to be in Iraq prior to CBS' release of the images.

opposite way. The right wing nuts portray Moore as a wacky left winger so the fact that CBS got the picture out there sort would make the rest of the stuff in Moore's movie more legitimate. They can't deny that the pictures are real, it's out there. Kind of takes some of the wind out their sails.

Most people now know that the sanitized version of the Iraq War they had been given until recently is false.

They're hungry for the truth about Iraq, and Michael Moore's "Farenheit 9/11" will have some of that truth.

The abuse shown in Fahrenheit 9/11 is separate from Abu Ghraib, with completely different abusers, so it's definitely not a "rehash." I don't think there's any relation between CBS releasing the photos and Moore's film, because Moore's film apparently shows regular soldiers going around assaulting and abusing Iraqis. The Right tries to spin that the prisoners were criminals, but how will they spin US soldiers just going around assaulting Iraqis? Also, their whole spin is that Abu Ghraib was just six or seven bad apples. How will they respond to even more soldiers almost routinely assaulting civilians?

I think you're reading way too much into possible links; trust me, this administration never wanted any photos released through any medium. In addition, if there is a connection, it would've been far preferable for Bush to have left Moore to reveal the abuse in his movie than for CBS to do so: far fewer people will see the movie than have watched the nightly news, and it would've been extremely easy for the Right to pass it all off as a fabrication of that left-wing, communist extremist Michael Moore. That CBS has presented evidence of abuse separate from Moore's film actually destroys the pretense that everything in Moore's movie is a lie.

I would put it to the Right that I wish everything in Moore's movie were "old news," because that would mean the media had actually done its job and publicized everything in Moore's film. It's sad that someone like Moore even has to make a movie to educate the populace.