Moore or less - The Daily Utah Chronicle - News

Despite threats, accusations of betrayal, pressure from donors, insults, bribes, a petition and a civil lawsuit, Utah Valley State College student body leaders did not cancel controversial speaker Michael Moore's on-campus appearance Wednesday afternoon.

Moore, who charged the university more than $50,000 in speaking and traveling fees, was "grateful" to leaders Jim Bassi and Joe Vogel for standing by their decision and claimed it was an important demonstration of freedom of speech.

"It's incredible...thank you first of all to these students for their courage and their bravery," Moore told a crowd whose cheers were louder than its boos. "Because they have a conscience, no amount of money could buy them off. The students at Utah Valley State wouldn't back down."

Moore continued his multi-media presentation for roughly 90 minutes, criticizing President Bush and Republicans and committing "slackers" to vote by handing out the "staples of slackers everywhere,"-Top Ramen and men's underwear.

Moore read two of 3,000 letters he said he had received from soldiers who are displeased with Bush and criticized the media for not reporting "the truth" about the war in Iraq.

"The media has done a poor job of informing us of the truth," Moore said. "The American people, when given information, tend to do the right thing. When they are kept in the dark, they tend to do the wrong thing."

He emphasized that Utah is a part of the United States and has the same rights given by the U.S. Constitution.

"You have the right of freedom of speech, expression and religion," he said.

Moore invited Roseanne Barr as a special guest speaker.

She delivered a satirical speech, criticizing Bush as having "deficit-attention disorder" and said he had a cavalier attitude, which she fears will continue.

She described Bush's attitude as, "The world is our b****, and we'll just pop a cap in her ass when she doesn't do what we want."