Michael Moore, director of the Oscar-winning Bowling for Columbine,
appeared last night at
the University of Rochester, my alma mater, to a sold-out crowd. Moore is
idolized by many on the American left who revere him as the working-class boy
from Flint, Michigan, that went on to promote the radical left,
anti-trade, class warfare agenda on the world stage.
Unfortunately, the "man from Flint" - who now lives in a $1.2 million
Manhattan apartment - does far more harm than good to the progressive cause.
The left would be better off without him. His "documentaries" are shallow and
simplistic, inflammatory, and largely - to quote Moore himself - fictional.
Bowling for Columbine is one of the worst offenders, and is undeserving
of an Oscar let alone the title "documentary."
Take, for example, just a few claims Moore makes in the movie:
The NRA did indeed hold its annual convention in Denver just two weeks after the
Columbine shootings. But Charlton Heston and the NRA were not as disgusting as
Moore portrays them through his clever editing tricks. Heston's speech
actually recognizes the Columbine tragedy and notes that the NRA
canceled the events and festivities that normally accompany its annual
meetings. The footage used in Bowling is spliced together from Heston's
Denver speech and a speech that occurred months later (notice
the "cold dead hands" line is not in the Denver transcript). Click here for a
comparison of the speech and Moore's edits.
Moore tries to convince audiences that the NRA is following school shootings
around the nation: "Just as he did after the Columbine shooting," Moore
narrates, "Charlton Heston showed up in Flint, to have a big pro-gun rally." Yet
actually, the Heston speech in Michigan was a get-out-the-vote rally
some eight
months after the school shooting of 6-year old Kayla Rolland.
Despite all this trashing of the NRA (which really does deserve it, yet for
other reasons), Moore proudly declares himself a life-long member (note to MM:
even former President Bush has revoked his NRA membership in protest of the
organization). And he dismisses the one purpose of the NRA - to promote gun
ownership and gun rights - as a cause of gun violence.
In the film, Moore links the Columbine shootings with the nearby
Lockheed-Martin missile factory. But as laughable as that association is, it
isn't based on truth either. As Moore admits on his
website, Lockheed-Martin builds rockets for the launch of satellites, not
missiles!
Indeed, Moore plays so fast and loose with the facts that even the title of
the film is not based on reality: according to the Jefferson County Sheriff's report,
the Columbine shooters did not go to bowling class the morning of the
tragedy. According to the Detroit News,
the bank scene was also staged. (When questioned on this point, Moore replies
that he really did just go into t