Liberal philistinism and Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11

[Euphen]

Liberal philistinism and Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11
By David Walsh
9 July 2004

<snip>

There is an even deeper reason for the violence of the attacks on Moore’s film. To the complacent liberal journalist there is something frightening about both Fahrenheit 9/11 and the powerful response of the population to its charges. To acknowledge that the Iraq war was a criminal enterprise, that the US government lies unrelentingly, that millions despise the Bush administration and the entire establishment with a visceral hatred, all this is devastating to the Cohens and Kristofs and Goodmans.

If cannot be true that crimes of this dimension were taking place, because that would indicate something horribly wrong about America. And the popular outpouring must be dismissed because its implication, that the US is a powder keg, is also terrifying. Each column these people write is a soporific, delivering the message, ‘everything is well and good,’ ‘everything is under control.’

The war may be terrible, but it will pass. The Bush administration may be vile, but it too will pass. Dangers exist, but they are always somewhere else, they always emerge from some external source, some “bad guy” far away.

If, on the other hand, what Moore asserts about the US ruling elite in Fahrenheit 9/11 is true and if the reaction to his film is an accurate reflection of the volatile state of mass consciousness, then this is a very different and disturbing picture. Then things have been done that cannot be undone; the course of American history has been irrevocably altered. Such a thought cannot be allowed! What follows from it is far too shattering for the liberal philistine. He or she responds with bewilderment and venom.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2004/jul2004/cohe-j09.shtml

[cprise]

1. The day I saw F-911

...I could almost smell the smoke coming out of these journalists' ears.

The corporate-news M.O. goes thus: We are "liberal news media". Liberals are the enemy. The enemy is trying to mislead you. React! (message repeats.) That smokescreen lets them get away with almost any lie or omission in this country.

Of course when it comes to individual journalists, I have no doubt some are deranged enough to really believe they are liberal and/or socially responsible. But sincerity is valuable to your parent company when it is trying to sell war toys to the pentagon.

[Jade Fox]

2. This is good. The only article on Moore's film I've seen that....

addresses the media's avoidance of the larger implications of F911.

Understandably, its scary to realize how much of a mess we're in, but
if we ignore it, its not going away!

Thank God for Michael Moore.