with many friends and family involved in the
auto industry in one form or another, and having spent a few of my formative years in [
well, near, actually ]
flint, michigan
at around the same time that
michael moore’s
was released, i probably follow the latest michael moore controversy
more closely than most.
anyone from flint knows that michael has
always
been ham-fisted with the facts. and he has a penchant for
self-promotion that borders on the obnoxious. but he’d use these and
many other tricks to tell an entertaining [ and often heartfelt ]
story in a classic populist style. he might be a ham-fisted
propagandist, but he was
our
ham-fisted, populist propagandist. nonetheless, over the years, i had found
myself accepting an increasingly annoying caricature of
moore which was reinforced by the press. while i found him entertaining, it seemed that we has straying from his roots.
indeed, when
bowling for
columbine was released, others felt that
moore had lost his populist heart.
i will admit to refusing to watch the movie
because i didn’t think i could sit through an entire production
from the “new” snarky-sans-heart michael. luckily, i eventually succumbed and found
that the movie to be surprisingly good. was it created by a
ham-fisted, populist propagandist? most certainly. but it was
created by
our
ham-fisted, populist propagandist. [ as an aside, michael was
recently invited to speak at a local church in my current hometown
–
grand rapids, michigan
. for a variety of reasons, grand rapids is
not
the kind of place you’d suspect to find a lot of moore supporters,
so kris and i decided to go 45 minutes early so that we could get
good seats and perhaps say, “hi.” as we approached the church on a
cold, drizzly late winter day, we were surprised to that the line
was several people wide, stretched around the entire block and
continued down the street. we just decided to keep driving, since
there were obviously far too many people in line given the seating
capacity of the church. we later learned that michael stood outside
and talked with those that couldn’t get in for 30-45 minutes before
his “official” talk began. ]
and so, it’s with all this context that i read the latest headlines
about
moore’s latest ‘publicity stunt’
. our ham-fisted, populist propagandist is at it again –
michael responds
:
“Eisner told my agent that he did not want to anger Jeb
Bush, the governor of Florida. The movie, he believed, would
complicate an already complicated situation with current and future
Disney projects in Florida, and that many millions of dollars of
tax breaks and incentives were at stake.”