{"id":6150,"date":"2004-05-07T07:01:16","date_gmt":"2004-05-07T14:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/05\/07\/shocked-shocked-i-tell-you-2.html"},"modified":"2014-11-10T11:47:55","modified_gmt":"2014-11-10T18:47:55","slug":"shocked_shocked-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/05\/07\/shocked_shocked-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Shocked! Shocked, I tell you!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Moore? The <\/i>Michael Moore? Admitting his posturing about censorship was a publicity stunt?<\/i> Say it ain’t so!<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, it isn’t, really. But it’s close.<\/p>\n

Less than 24 hours after accusing the Walt Disney Company of pulling the plug on his latest documentary in a blatant attempt at political censorship, the rabble-rousing film-maker Michael Moore has admitted he knew a year ago that Disney had no intention of distributing it.
\nThe admission, during an interview with CNN, undermined Moore’s claim that Disney was trying to sabotage the US release of Fahrenheit 911 <\/i>just days before its world premiere at the Cannes film festival.
\nInstead, it lent credence to a growing suspicion that Moore was manufacturing a controversy to help publicise the film, a full-bore attack on the Bush administration and its handling of national security since the attacks of 11 September 2001.<\/p>\n

Gee. Do you think the “controversy” will cause the Canne opening to fail, or pump it up still more? What do you think?<\/p>\n

The film was produced by the Miramax label, which is owned by Disney. The official Moore screed<\/a> on the subject (along with an accompanying NY Times <\/i>editorial<\/a>) decries the “profound censorship” by Disney. It certainly leaves the impression that this was all a last-second Disney cave to the Bush family, after veiled threats about Disney’s Florida (Gov. Jeb Bush) properties.<\/p>\n

Yet Disney says it made it clear a year ago to both Miramax and to Moore’s agent that they would not distribute the film. And Moore basically admits that:<\/p>\n

But in the CNN interview he said: “Almost a year ago, after we’d started making the film, the chairman of Disney, Michael Eisner, told my agent he was upset Miramax had made the film and he will not distribute it.”
\n[…] Moore told CNN that Disney had “signed a contract to distribute this [film]” but got cold feet. But Disney executives insist there was never any contract. And a source close to Miramax said that the only deal there was for financing, not for distribution.<\/p>\n

In a related NY Times <\/i>article<\/a>, we have: <\/p>\n

Mr. Moore, who will present the film at the Cannes film festival this month, criticized Disney’s decision in an interview on Tuesday, saying, “At some point the question has to be asked, `Should this be happening in a free and open society where the monied interests essentially call the shots regarding the information that the public is allowed to see?’ ”<\/p>\n

As a monied interest himself, Moore should be well aware that money is what it takes to make a film, and distribute it. But the implication is clear — the next time I <\/i>want to make a movie, Moore wil be more than happy to just pony up some bucks toward the effort, in the interest of a “free and open society.”<\/p>\n

Or — hey, maybe he’ll finance the publishing of my book! Or support me in become a full-time blogger (I figure that should pull down two, maybe three hundred thou a year)! I like this plan!<\/p>\n

I know Mike won’t disappoint me. He is, after all, a champion of the little people, like me, and would never let the Man keep me down …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Moore? The Michael Moore? Admitting his posturing about censorship was a publicity stunt? Say it ain’t so! Well, it isn’t, really. But it’s close. Less than 24 hours after…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[263,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disney","category-media-moguls"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3452,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/11\/19\/less_with_moore.html","url_meta":{"origin":6150,"position":0},"title":"Less with Moore","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 19-Nov-02 6:44am","format":false,"excerpt":"Spinsanity has another fine skewering of Michael Moore and his film, Bowling for Columbine. Putting aside Moore's claim to be in it for the humor, the column points out the...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":431,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/04\/15\/bowling_spins.html","url_meta":{"origin":6150,"position":1},"title":"Bowling spins","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 15-Apr-03 8:29pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Revoke Michael Moore's Oscar site is a letter-writing campaign to get the AMPAS to revoke the Moore Oscar for Bowling for Columbine, since it doesn't really qualify as a...","rel":"","context":"In "Media & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Media & Culture","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4324,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/09\/24\/defensive_bowli.html","url_meta":{"origin":6150,"position":2},"title":"Defensive Bowling","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 24-Sep-03 3:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"MIchael Moore, in his typically understated style, is launching an ongoing defense of his documentary, Bowling for Columbine. Starting things off in a calm and reasoned fashion (\"Michael Moore responds...","rel":"","context":"In "Media Moguls"","block_context":{"text":"Media Moguls","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-moguls"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17870,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/14\/comic-con-panels.html","url_meta":{"origin":6150,"position":3},"title":"Comic-Con Panels","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 14-Jul-10 11:48pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Looking through the announced schedule for the San Diego Comic-Con, some observations \/ categorizations: Biggest Decision of Which Panel I'm Least Likely to Attend:\u00a0 Sat. 10:00-11:00 - Nickelodeon Presents: the \"SpongeBob SquarePants\" Secret Formula Revealed! or \"Twilight\" Fanfiction Author Fangroup Most Ironic Panel: Sat. 3:30-4:30 - Robert E. Howard in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Avatar \/ Airbender \/ Korra"","block_context":{"text":"Avatar \/ Airbender \/ Korra","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/avatarairbenderkorra"},"img":{"alt_text":"San Diego Comic-Con","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/sdcc.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":585,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/09\/14\/comments_from_m.html","url_meta":{"origin":6150,"position":4},"title":"Comments from Michael Moore","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 14-Sep-01 5:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Comments from Michael Moore Yes, that Michael Moore. Some really interesting stuff here on airport security and etc. A bit off the wall in places, but worth reading. Referred via...","rel":"","context":"In "9-11"","block_context":{"text":"9-11","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/9-11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6610,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/08\/12\/documentary.html","url_meta":{"origin":6150,"position":5},"title":"Documentary?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 12-Aug-04 2:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I've not had much comment on Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9\/11, but this story just strikes me as odd: Filmmaker Michael Moore makes no apologizes for his Bush-bashing documentary \"Fahrenheit 9\/11,\"...","rel":"","context":"In "Fourth Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Fourth Estate","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/fourth-estate"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47619,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6150\/revisions\/47619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}