Shoddy research and fuzzy logic earn Moore an Oscar

Michael Moore’s comments at the Oscars – “We live in a time where we have fictitious… Michael Moore’s comments at the Oscars – “We live in a time where we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president, who’s sending us to war for fictitious reasons … Shame on you, Mr. Bush.” – and the boos that followed, shocked viewers and initiated a slew of news and entertainment broadcasters to wrap up the segments they did on it by saying something along the lines of, “But that sure was a brilliant documentary, Sally,” “Yes Jack, absolutely captivating.”

And that – the reverence given to Moore’s documentary “Bowling for Columbine” – is the real shock in all of this.

I remember leaving the theater after watching “Bowling for Columbine” thinking it was extremely well done. It made me think. I now know that all the thought I did was, besides being an effective analytic exercise, a waste of time.

“Bowling for Columbine,” and Moore’s work in general, is a fabricated ensemble of half-truths, whose approach to the issue at hand is more cunning than coherent.

One of the most credible scenes is an interview with Barry Glassner, author of “The Culture of Fear.” The book contends that culturally, Americans are prone to sensationalism and fear and the media caters to this. It addresses several fictitious problems Americans perceive, or have perceived, to be threatening them – things like killer bees and flesh-eating bacteria.

Glassner also talks about school shootings and youth violence as a fictitious problem created by the media. But that part isn’t in Moore’s film. After all, the outbreak of school violence is the main pillar of Moore’s argument in favor of gun control.

Throughout the “documentary” Moore repeatedly assaults the National Rifle Association, from its founding and practices to a personal, albeit indirect, attack on its president, Charlton Heston.

Heston is painted as a racist by a sound bite – taken from the surprise interview Moore greeted Heston with after deceiving him to get in his door – where he suggests that the violence in America might be attributed to the racial diversity of the nation.

In actuality, Heston was just acknowledging the unfortunate level of racism in our country and the fact that it causes violence. Heston’s personal civil rights record is commendable. He worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and even led a component of his 1963 march in Washington and has been a vocal civil rights activist ever since.

But this suggestion by Moore is really just an extension of his contention that the NRA began as a racist institution. A delightful little cartoon asks “Isn’t it funny that the NRA began the same year the KKK was deemed illegal?” An interesting question until one realizes that the NRA was founded by two ex-union officers and elected Ulysses S. Grant its eighth president after he spent much of his other presidency, that as president of the United States, coming down hard on several chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. Moore also fails to mention that many blacks in the South joined the NRA as a way to gain weapons to fight against white aggression.

Moore also tries to pass off an appearance and some quick remarks Heston made at a get-out-the-vote rally in Flint, Mich. eight months after a school shooting there as, “Another gun rally shortly after another child/gun tragedy in Flint.”

Moore also tries to link $245 million he says the United States gave the Taliban to Sept.11, 2001. The fact that it was actually United Nations and non-governmental organization money given as humanitarian assistance to fight famine is apparently not important.

Even the way numerical figures are presented is irresponsible and misleading. The numbers given for gun homicide rates in the United States versus those of other countries are not adjusted for population or population density. The 11,127 gun homicide deaths in the United States reported in “Bowling for Columbine” is confusing since 8,719 in 2001 is the highest number recorded by the FBI since 1997. When placed against actual government figures, the figures given for other countries face similar discrepancy. And his array of foreign country homicide rates excludes Switzerland, home of the most armed populace in Europe and a lower crime rate than Great Britain.

Moore’s deception is rampant throughout the movie. From editing that doctors a speech by Heston to misrepresenting a factory that makes rockets used to launch satellites as a weapons factory, nothing in this movie is to be trusted.

I could go on, and this is still just “Bowling for Columbine.” His books suffer from similar deception and irresponsible research. Hell, he’s not even funny.

Will Minton would like to thank David T. Hardy for his research and can’t wait for the “real world” where research techniques that would now earn him a D can get him an Oscar. He can be reached at WMinton@pittnews.com.