(no subject)

[mithriltabby]

It turned out my parents and my mother-in-law (who was in town, visiting from Oregon) all wanted to see Fahrenheit 9/11, so obsessivewoman and I took them to a matinee showing yesterday.

I’ve been following the actions of the Bush administration since the election, from electoral fraud to the whole Mess o’ Potamia, and had figured the film would be largely redundant to what I’d already read. Having perused the Yea and Nay reviews at Salon.com, I kept my expectations low.

I was pleasantly surprised: there was much data in there that was new to me. I agree with Andrew O’Hehir (author of the Yay review) that this is not a political documentary. and with Stephane Zacharek (author of the Nay review) that much of Moore’s humor was jarring. (Toward the end, though, when Moore is asking Congresscritters to have their children join the military and serve in Iraq, one flabbergasted lawmaker’s expression is priceless.) But I don’t think I’m a member of this movie’s target demographic.

To me, the film feels like a distillation of highlights from a liberal version of Fox News from some parallel universe— and to his credit, Moore doesn’t claim this is anything other than an opinion piece. For people who only get their news from the television, it will serve as a balance to the slant on supposedly “fair and balanced” channels; for people who do their homework, it gives a large number of data points to be looked up and placed in proper context.

I found myself wishing for a hypertext version of the movie with annotations from groups like factcheck_org or spinsanity, but I recognize that would be a different production, and targeted at a different demographic. But for people who do want to do their homework before voting, it would be very interesting to see. Ralph Nader made a very interesting point on last night’s Daily Show: if people pay attention to the fine details of statistics on sports figures, why not pay similar attention to the actions of the people who run our country, instead of just listening to their promises?

Comments

[cmccurry.livejournal.com]

if people pay attention to the fine details of statistics on sports figures, why not pay similar attention to the actions of the people who run our country, instead of just listening to their promises?

VERY well put. There is no excuse for not doing research on the people you vote for.

[mithriltabby]

If they started putting up performance statistics onscreen during debates the way they do at a baseball game, I’d actually bother to watch just for the fun of it. (By the time presidential debates occur, I know perfectly well who has bought the candidates, and am uninterested in their verbal blatherings, which have no correlation to their actual performance.) Hmmm... I think I’ll write ESPN and suggest they cover the presidential debates...

[mithriltabby]

Okay, the ESPN web site was too difficult to navigate, so I just wrote to Air America Radio instead...

[cmccurry.livejournal.com]

ESPN seems to feel that they have to cram as many graphics and links as humanly possible. I am interested in hearing if Air America Radio answers you though.

[divertimento.livejournal.com]

One new outlet that might be sympathetic to what you suggest
is the new CNBC talk show hosted by John McEnroe (it started
airing July 7th). Darn good start to the show in its first
week. But a website that applies the rigor of sports
record keeping to politicians would fit the merging of
McEnroe's interests very well.

Interesting interview of Ralph Nader on McEnroe's second
show. The host revealed himself as a poster child for what
Nader said was the reason he ran for office in 2000: McEnroe
registered and voted for the first time to vote for Nader.
But McEnroe used the interview to keep pushing Ralph for
an explanation of why it made sense to run in 2004 when the
priority was to get Bush out.

Monday's show will include an interview with the editor
of The Nation. Nice to see an avowed liberal like John hosting a
show, and not be restricted to talking only about sports.

[trogula.livejournal.com]

I found myself wishing for a hypertext version of the movie

The hypertext version (actually, strongly footnoted version) of the movie would be Dude, Where's My Country? (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0446532231/qid=1089294550/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/002-3640891-5517627?v=glance&s=books&n=507846).

There isn't a 1:1 correlation between his latest book and the movie, but much of what you are looking for can be found in chapter 1, "7 Questions for George of Arabia". This book is Moore's best researched work, with almost all of the references from mainstream press sources. It is quite good.

[daehith.livejournal.com]

Well said, sir. Your summation makes me want to see the movie even more! And I also want to know if you get any bites with your statistics idea... do you think the Daily Show would be interested?