Fahrenheit 9/11 is Participatory Journalism
Never judge a book by its movie, someone once quipped, but perhaps there was no Fahrenheit 9/11 back then. I watched this searing tragi-comic documentary tonight with a few Kennesaw State University colleagues, a day after my favorite radio talk show host said it had collected $56 million in two weeks.
Wasn’t I the richer for the experience! Michael Moore pummelled me to pulp. He made me guffaw, he made me cry, he made me gasp. He provoked, he evoked, he even invoked. All at the same time.
I am using rhetoric, but Moore uses facts. He is doing a job that journalists should have been doing during the last eight months: Read this eye-opening commentary by Matt Taibbi. Moore’s arguments and footage might appear polemical, but actually they represent solid, old-fashioned participatory journalism, in the best traditions of expressive freedom. They are a triumph for cinema in an age that belongs to the newer media.
Moore takes his commentary, accompanied by camera, to the heart of news scenes (such as the Flint, Mich., mall where military agents aggressively seek recruits), and to the homes of the characters (such as Lila Lipscomb who exhorts youngsters to enlist). His film, it can be said, is created by its engaging (and real) characters, not least of whom is President Bush.
Moore chases the news in an election year — even creates some, from his very liberal perspective — and makes no bones about the fact. Fahrenheit has real actors, in real situations, recounting real events, suffering real subterfuge, crying real tears. This is a real film, short in real locations with real people. The one thing it does show not is the footage of the planes crashing into the WTC, footage that is an icon for our generation. Nevertheless, you tend to see those planes in every scene.
One of Moore’s few subtle messages is against the corporate media, a message that resonates with the argument made by Richard Hack in his 2003 monograph Clash of the Titans.
I strongly recommend Fahrenheit if you’d like to see a cinematic depiction of participatory journalism. Especially if you’re an admirer of President Bush’s “moral clarity” (to quote Sean Hannity’s oft-used praise for the President; and no, Hannity is not my favorite talk show host!)
Congratulations, Moore, but even more importantly, congratulations, America.
July 6th, 2004 at 10:24 pm
What a wad of crap. Read the reporting on Moore’s “reporting,” starting with Newsweek’s. He doesn’t report. He rants. This is the farthest thing from journalism. It is pure propaganda. This rave is appearing on a site that is supposed to be about journalism? Appalling.