Fifty-six Deceits in Fahrenheit 911, compiled by Dave Kopel.
This is a preliminary version of an article that will be published on National Review Online. This report was first posted on the web on the morning of July 1. Since then, I've revised several sections in response to reader requests for clarifications, and have added additional deceits which have been pointed out by readers or journalists. Astute readers will notice that the revised number of deceits now exceeds fifty-six. I will update the formal count later. . . .
In a better world, it would be incumbent on every individual in the audience to review the allegations of Fahrenheit 911, and read the investigations of those who have disputed Moore's film.
In a better world.
P.S. Mooreites might be inclined to dismiss this just another Republican rant; on the contrary, Dave Kopel (who, like Moore, voted for Nader in 2000), concludes with the admission:
Today, there are many patriotic Americans who oppose some or all aspects of the War on Terror.
I am among them, in that I have strongly
opposed the Patriot Act from its first days, have denounced the Bush administration for siding with corporate interests rather than with public safety by
sabotaging the Armed Pilots law, and have repeatedly stated that the current Saudi tyranny should be recognized as a major part of the problem in the War on Terror--despite the tyranny's close relationship with America's foreign policy elite.
Being critical of the Bush administration, however, makes no difference when it comes to challenging the deceits of Michael Moore:
In contrast to the large number of patriots who have argued against particular wars or wartime policies, a much smaller number of Americans have hated America. They have cheered for the fighters who were killing Americans. They have belittled America’s right to protect itself, and they have produced propaganda designed to destroy American morale and to facilitate enemy victory. To advance their anti-American cause, they have sometimes feigned love for the nation they despised.
Do the many falsehoods and misrepresentations of Fahrenheit 911 suggest a film producer who just makes careless mistakes? Or does a man who calls Americans "possibly the dumbest people on the planet" believe that his audience will be too dumb to tell when he is tricking them? Viewers will have to decide for themselves whether the extremist and extremely deceptive Fahrenheit 911 is a conscientious work of patriotic dissent, or the cynical propaganda of a man who gives wartime aid to America's murderous enemies, and who accepts their aid in return.
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