fahrenheit 9/11 and the path to 9/11

the rightwingers are congratulating themselves in their latest round of "spot the liberal hypocrites." they say that liberals insisted on the inherent truths of michael moore's fahrenheit 9/11 and yet denounce the forthcoming ABC mini-series the path to 9/11 as fabrication. i refer you to mario loyola, karl, rightwingsparkle, marc schulman, curt, newyank, mark, vern beachy -- and i'm sure there will be others.


i'm no big fan of moore myself, but let's make one thing clear: the crucial and obvious difference between ABC's mini-series and moore's film -- one that i daresay negates the analogy altogether -- is of course the medium and not the message: the production and consumption of a hollywood movie remains entirely within the realm of personal and private enterprise, while a TV mini-series makes use of public airwaves that are licensed by the FCC on behalf of the american public. the more appropriate analogy thus might very well be less with fahrenheit 9/11 than with the swift-boat propaganda film stolen honor: wounds that never heal.

of course ABC's parent company disney has already made its political leanings evident when it blocked its subsidiary miramax from distributing fahrenheit 9/11 -- well within its rights of private enterprise of course, so this is all really no surprise.