The Raw Story | An open letter to Michael Moore

The Raw Story | An open letter to Michael Moore: "You have done some amazing things this year, Mike – amazing things. Fahrenheit 9/11 became the highest-grossing documentary film in history. You have become something I would never have thought could exist: a bankable documentary film maker. You have become perhaps the most influential non-politician in this election cycle. Congratulations – and thank you.
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I admire the work you are doing to motivate young folks to vote. And I admire the way you have helped expose Ralph Nader as a post-Body Snatchers progressive in name only. Amazing things all. But your film, in addition to all of its desired effects, has obeyed the law of unintended consequences: we are seeing behavior from the far right that would have been hard to imagine – even for them – four years ago. The Swift Boat ads were low, but now they are stooping even lower. Sinclair Broadcasting Group is ordering its 62 TV stations to broadcast (on OUR airwaves) a film accusing John Kerry of betraying American POWS when he spoke out against the Vietnam War.

You know what an outrageous charge that is. The way the right wingers have tried to turn Kerry’s opposition to the Vietnam War – a brave act that, by helping to shorten the war, almost certainly saved even more lives than George Bush has wasted in Iraq – into an act of treason is shameful. Isn’t it ironic that this is the very same Sinclair that censored the Nightline show when Ted Koppel read the names of our fallen?

I know that you are working to get F 9/11 on the air. I have read that you are talking with various pay-per-view outlets. That would help, of course, but let me tell you something: the folks who really need to see your film would eat worms before they paid you a dime. There is nothing wrong with rallying the progressive troops, or preaching to the converted. But the most important thing you could do to help the cause is get outside our echo chamber and break into theirs. Dittoheads and Fox viewers won’t pay to undermine their own beliefs – but they might just watch it for free.

So here is a gut check for you: if you really want to counter the gutter politics Sinclair is shoveling a few days before the election, forget pay-per-view. Offer Fahrenheit to the networks for nothing. Use their greed against them. They made all kinds of high-falutin’ noise about fairness when they refused to run ads for the F-9/11 DVD, but they know the ratings will be sky-high if they broadcast anything this controversial – and ratings are the coin of their realm. If they don’t have to pay you anything, my guess is that the profit motive will ensure that someone will bite. And putting it out on a network is going to get the truth in front of millions of new people, Michael – millions.

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