Dialogue with Michael Moore

May 17, 2004
By Gregg Kilday
Hollywood Reporter

THR: But since you knew Eisner had raised objections to the film a year ago, critics have charged the latest controversy has been a publicity stunt.

Moore: (The mainstream media has said): "Oh, this is a Michael Moore/Harvey Weinstein publicity stunt. They're real good at generating publicity." Really? Yeah, like when this happened with "Kids" and "Dogma," all that publicity, all the controversy, really made the boxoffice soar for those two films, didn't it? They both died. This is not going to help sell tickets. No filmmaker wants to be told two months before the film is going to be released that you've lost your main distributor. I'm curious why it's reported that way instead of: What the hell is Disney doing here? These media companies are given a public trust, and part of the arrangement with this society is that, OK, we'll accept the fact you can have private control over information, but in giving you that private control and allowing you to make profits, you are to allow all voices to be heard. Nobody has pointed out the extreme irony of Disney saying they don't want to get involved in a partisan film in a political year when they syndicate the Sean Hannity radio show, they carry Rush Limbaugh on their ABC-owned stations, the ABC Family channel carries Pat Robertson every night. When's somebody going to call them on it?