In this film, the “documentarian” decided to try to humiliate someone he didn’t like.  During the segment a website was mentioned.  You decide to visit that website.  At the top of it is a big graphic that basically says “If you are here because of the movie, read this first” and links to a page full of facts, links to stories about the events leading up to the appearance in the film, and detailed explanations of the person’s actual thoughts and political leanings.

Would you read that page before you sent the person an email?  If you said yes, you are smarter than 99.999765% of all Michael Moore fans on the Internet.

The phrase “stuck on stupid” has never meant more to me than it has this week.  I mean, the flood of email was MUCH worse when the film was in theaters.  At one point during opening week I was getting thousands a day, and I deleted most of them unread.  It stopped almost as soon as it started, as Sicko was not the smash hit and huge influence Moore expected.  It crashed rather hard, as did our traffic levels and the amount of hate mail I was getting.  Due to the release of the DVD, interest has revived just enough that I can actually look at each email, so I am seeing the patterns much more clearly. 

I have received exactly three emails that were well-written, thoughtful and polite.  I’ve received maybe a hundred and fifty negatives.  Half of that are just childish name-calling.  The rest all follow a formula, in this order:

1. They open with one of two statement; “I am not a fan of Moore” or “I am a fan of Moore”

2. They affirm that they know he’s a liar, but it’s OK because the cause is just, or they claim he tells the 100% truth.  Either way, they always dismiss the Cuba segment as an aberration or completely unimportant.  One out of thirty will claim that Cuba is exactly the paradise portrayed by Moore.  My guess is, those are the same kind of scum who think Che Guevara is a hero.

3. They offer some proof of why they know better, like they work as an orderly or they once visited France and got stitches from the health service and it was free.  I swear that was one guy’s example of why America is evil.

4. They accuse me of being a big fan of Bush, Cheney, Hannity or Rush.  Or all of them.

5. They tell me that the site is hateful.  Some try to use analogies like Nazi/Jew, KKK/Black people, etc.  Obviously in these analogies I am the Nazi or the Klansmen, and Moore is the put-upon minority.  Some just flat-out state that opposing Moore means I hate the poor, and I must be rich “like Bush” to not believe in 100% socialized medicine.  Some say that questioning Moore means I hate him.  This part often varies in detail but is ALWAYS included and always revolves around the word “hate.” It seems to be a buzzword among college leftists these days.

6. They seem to think I spend all day, every day doing nothing but Moorewatch.  Aside from reading the email, I haven’t spent more than ten minutes actual time at Moorewatch in about ten days.  The site is self-perpetuating at this point.  It takes a couple hours a month at the most, but that doesn’t seem to register with anyone.  The emails always contain some variation on “You spend all your time___” (usually “hating on Moore” but sometimes it’s other things).

7. Incorrect facts.  Sometimes they lead with “Moore saved your wife’s life” but most often it’s buried at the end.  They all seem to think Donna was dying of cancer, and Moore’s $12,000 cured her.  I don’t know where this cancer thing started, or why someone thinks you could cure cancer with $12,000 worth of anything, but there you have it.  If it’s not cancer, they just say she was “dying.” Either way, Moore saved her life and I need to shut the site down.  No one seems to know that both Donna and I publicly thanked Moore either.  Again, sometimes they lead with “Why didn’t you at least thank him” but more often than not it’s buried down here.  They also never know that Moore lied and literally tricked us into accepting the money as a setup for the movie.

8. The buying of my silence.  Almost to a man and woman, every “critic” thinks that $12,000 should buy my silence.  That I should be so grateful to him for tricking me and trying to humiliate me in his film, I should stop ever disagreeing with anything he ever says.  Some go so far as to state that my opinion should be changed now.  Somehow, this cash was supposed to change the facts and make Moore not a liar.  Some say it should make me OK with him being a liar, even though sometimes they open the same email by saying he’s not a liar.  So, he’s not a liar but if he is a liar I should not care because he lied to me and tricked me into taking money so he could use it in the film.  Sure.  That makes perfect sense.

9. Insults.  Well, obviously.  These vary, but always seem to fall into categories.  I am; right wing, ungrateful, hateful, stupid, xenophobic and greedy.  Most of the Brits will use one of the following: twat, wanker, prat.  Most of the Americans will swear.  The purely insulting ones are almost always a single paragraph with seemingly random punctuation.  Many of them include a lot of TXTSPK, loads of lol and rofl and “u” instead of “you.” I weep for our future.

10. Sometimes it’s none of the above.  Sometimes it’s machine-translated gibberish, oddly enough often from Denmark.  Or it’s terrible English from a European.  I’m not insulting the skills, as I can’t write in any language except English, but if you know you are bad at another language, why on earth would you try to discuss higher concepts like socialized medicine and free market economies?

11. Lastly, some of them include most of the above, but they write missives.  HUGE emails, sometimes in the thousands of words, packed to the gills with errant facts, bad conclusions, assumptions about me, my wife, Lee, the cost of eggs in China and everything else they can pack in there.  Often, if they originate outside the US, these missives are specifically and expressly anti-American just for the sake of it.  Oddly, they attack me as representative of all Americans, as if I am responsible for everyone from the President to the LA gang-banger doing drive-bys.  Generally the missives are repetitive and insulting, which is nice.  One woman was so verbose I decided to string her along.  I would reply in sentences of five words or less, always insulting and goading.  She would reply with massive, lengthy emails that must have taken the better part of an hour to compose and type.  She did this fourteen times before I just gave up.

I’ll be honest; I don’t understand Moore fans.  I don’t see how a person capable of using a computer and the Internet could write like a ten year old, and have no comprehension skills whatsoever.  I don’t know why a person would visit a website and not read the huge disclaimer that specifically applies to them.  I don’t know why anyone would encourage lies in service of massive government waste and at the same time be a critic of Bush’s spending policies.  I don’t understand why you would compose missives without doing the tiniest bit of research first.  I don’t understand how you could ignore a film like Manufacturing Dissent while at the same time following the instructions of a guy who lies and deceives everyone around him every day in order to turn a profit and increase his fame.

Then again...I’m not a Moore fan.  I guess it’s not for me to understand.  They don’t seem to understand why we would be concerned with uncovering the truth and asking people to become informed before trying to change the system by which we are governed.

Six of one, half dozen of the other, I suppose.

*UPDATE*

As if on cue...this came in not moments after this post was finalized:

from Jim K aribaariba@live.ca
to jimk.moorewatch, lee
date Nov 10, 2007 3:43 PM

You people are despicable! you should both burn in hell… michael moore seems to have things on the right track. altho he is not the most correct person in the world, he has the right idea. america sucks, simply put it is the best place to live; IF YOU HAVE MONEY… if not, you are shit out of luck.

Yours Truly,
-A Canadian

We should burn in hell because we disagree with a man who “is not the most correct person in the world” but, don’t forget, “he has the right idea.” Also, “america sucks” unless you are rich.  Nevermind that poor in this country means you have running water, a roof, television, a car, telephones, free health care from the government, etc.  That’s pesky factual evidence and we don’t deal with any of that.  America sucks, this Canadian has spoken.

God bless ‘em, every one.

The good news is, this is not due to an emergency.  There is no “lightning strikes,” no hard drive crashes, no con man creating any emergency.  It’s nice to be hosted by a professional!

The bad news is, this server costs some coin a month.  It’s not excessive, but it is biting me in the ass.  This is a bad time of year for us.  Lee is going to China, and that’s got him strapped.  Sicko failed to drive any lasting traffic, which means Blogads are trickling in mostly as one-week, low-payout dribs and drabs, if at all.

I hate to do this, but if you’ve considered us a valuable resource, would you consider a small donation?  Whatever you think the site is worth.  Two bucks is as appreciated as a hundred.

Now, I know I’m going to take it on the chin from critics of the site and Moore fans who just found out about this site and Sicko.  To anyone looking to turn this into a negative, the events in Sicko happened a year and a half ago.  Please bear that in mind.

If you’d like to help out, please hit this link and choose one of the options.  Your help is appreciated. By the way,if we collect anything more than we need for one year of server fees, I will donate it to a troop-supporting charity in the name of Moorewatch’s readers.

You want some good liberal documentarians?  Try Errol Morris, the brilliant film-maker who made The Thin Blue Line, which got Randall Adams out of prison, and Fog of War, which provides, indirectly, massive insight into what’s gone wrong in Iraq.  Morris spoke out against Iraq when he won his Oscar.  But watching his films, I would have no idea whether he’s liberal, conservative or independent.

In just the last few years, we’ve seen a number of good, responsible documentaries that should provoke thought and outrage from the Left:  Jesus Camp, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Ghost of Abu Ghraib, Deliver us From Evil—that’s just off the top of my head.  I’m sure I’m missing about six dozen titles.

Worse, the line between documentary and polemic has become blurred.  So An Inconvenient Truth blends solid science with speculative panic-mongering. Who Killed The Electric Car? has to saddle itself with half-truths. It’s not that a documentary has to be absolutely 100% non-partisan.  Or even present both sides fairly.  Hell, I’m a huge fan of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! and I wouldn’t claim they present both sides in a 100% non-partisan way. Nor would I say that about the other films mentioned above.

But there’s a difference between presenting an argument and distorting the argument.  A difference between presenting one side and presenting one fantasy. A difference between allowing your opponents to speak and putting words into their mouths.

The time and effort people invest in Michael Moore’s films is time they are not spending with better film-makers.  Film-makers who may have an agenda and an opinion, but present it fairly and reasonably.

It is possible to make the case that Bush is a terrible president—but F911 is just political porn for Demcrats.  It is possible to make the case that America is an incredibily violent nation, but Bowling for Columbine makes that point in a roundabout and factually erroneous way.

No one is going to claim the American healthcare system is perfect. It is possible to make the case for socialized medicine—although I will fight it strongly.  But it is not possible to have an honest discussion that begins with sob stories, staged incidents, luminous depictions of socialized medicine, distortions, half-truths and outright brassbound lies.

Somebody’s got to be the BS detector.

First of all, the easiest answer is another question: Why not?  Do the people who ask me why Moorewatch exists go around asking every other blog in the world why they exist?  Is it a waste of time to write a food blog, or a blog about comic books, or one about weight loss, cars, Nintendo, Democrats in Congress, movies, Ford or any other topic?  There are millions of blogs (literally) that cover every imaginable topic thought of by mankind.  Why is it such a surprise (and to some, a travesty) that one out of the millions of blogs that exist focuses on Moore’s work and Moore’s pet issues?  Do these same people email Kos and ask him why he only focuses on “progressive” issues?  For that matter why not ask Moore why he’s never made a movie that focuses on the good in America?  He makes the movies that interest him.  We blog about the issues that interest us.

The question of “Why Moore?” itself is kind of a waste of time.  Without meaning to be dismissive and insulting, it’s kind of a stupid question.

Secondly, the simple answer is “Because we can.” It’s a logical extension of the first answer.  We do it because at the time the site was created, no one else was, and we could.  We were the first, we’ll probably be the last.  Why do people climb mountains?  Why do people form political action committees?  Why do people join pottery classes or play soccer or collect thimbles?  Why does anyone do anything?  Further extending this line of thought, why is it somehow a bad thing that we choose to spend a few minutes a day doing this site?  Because we don’t tackle every single problem in the known world, we aren’t allowed to have a blog about what we see as one specific problem?  If we don’t do everything, we aren’t allowed to do anything?  I’ve never understood that logic.  I don’t think I ever will.

Third in the series of answers to this non-question; Because someone needs to try to keep Moore honest.  Rather a Sisyphean task, I know, but we exist to debunk and/or verify facts, claims and even opinion put forth by Moore.  It is, for lack of a better term, our mission statement.  Even his fans know he’s not honest.  They tell me all the time.  Then in the next breath, they ask me why we spend “so much time” debunking him.  Oddly contrary, those two positions seem.  But then, I’m not a disciple of the Church of Moore, I just don’t have the faith to accept lies as truth.  I don’t accept lies as truth form my government (regardless of what the trolls think, I’m not a “Bushie") and I won’t accept it from a man who is trying to socialize my country and turn it into a clone of Europe.

Lastly (for now) we exist because we’re still here.  This site started as a collaborative effort between myself and Lee.  We had a couple of guest authors who quickly fell off the radar (One quit blogging for a long time, the other just wandered away).  Lee and I kept dropping our posts about Moore on both our personal blogs and here at Moorewatch.  As the hubub about BFC continued, we started creating posts solely for this site.  During the run-up to F911 and the 2004 election, we were cranking it out and adding other authors as well.  We inspired a “cottage industry” [i.e. other people managed to make money, not us—Lee] of films and books and movies and websites about Moore, but more importantly to me, we grew a community.  It’s a small one, but there are some great writers and some sharp minds here, on both sides of the political fence.  Every time I have thought to myself “Moorewatch is more trouble than it’s worth” I look at the comments or the forums and I look past the trolls and critics to the users, left and right, who come back and add the real value to this site.

At this point I wouldn’t close it down even if Moore retired.  After the 2004 elections, the site almost went dead.  Traffic was down to the low hundreds per day, but that small community kept it going, fulling the forums with topics, packing the posts with comments that often ended up a million miles from where they started.  If you really want to see what keeps this place going, pick any given month from 2005 or 2006 and start reading the comment threads.  We’re at the stage now where the site keeps itself alive because of the community.

I hope that sheds some light on things.  Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to go light the grill and cook me some tasty goodness.  Enjoy your weekend, people.  We don’t get enough of them in this life.

1. ATTENTION PEOPLE FLOODING MY INBOX: I thanked Moore.  Read more about it below before you email me to yell at me.

I thanked him when he was hiding his identity, I thanked him when he made it known, I thanked him again after that.  I even did it a few times after the third one.  Moore himself has stated that I thanked him. 

HW: Did Jim, who runs the ‘anti-Michael Moore’ Web site [Moorewatch.com], ever find out that you were his mysterious donor?

MM: I left him a message recently to let him know that I was the person who sent him the money[to meet his wife’s medical bills], because I wanted him to know before the premiere of my film. I received a very gracious note from him thanking me and wishing the film well. I hope it turns out ok.

You all will have to find another reason to call me names now.

2. NOTE FROM LEE: To the people flooding my inbox, I AM NOT JIM.  I am the co-founder of this website.  We all know that Michael Moore fans aren’t the brightest group in the world, but if you want to send hate mail to Jim, how about clicking the right goddamned link?  Here’s a clue:  the one that says “Jim” is the one you want.  The one that says “Lee” is the wrong one.

3. In reference to Lee’s note: PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THE AUTHOR’S NAME IN EACH POST.  It’s in big, bold text at the top of each entry.  If you have a complaint or a comment, please make sure you are addressing the person who actually wrote the entry.  Lee and I excercise almost no editorial control over anything that is posted by our other writers.  We all have our own unique way of writing, our own ideas, our own voices.  If you take issue with something posted here, the very least you could do is to look and see who it was that wrote whatever it is that has pissed you off.  :)

4. If you feel yourself wanting to use the old chestnuts of “Faux Newz” or screaming to me about Hannity or O’Reilly or Limbaugh, please take a moment before you do and read this.  Thank you.

5. If you’re a regular reader of the site, would you consider filling out the Blog Reader Survey?  All data is private, as per the privacy policy located here. Survey is closed...thanks to all who participated!

6. Looking for a discussion on what to do about U.S. health care?  Start here and chime in with your suggestions.

7. Oh look, Moore himself saying that this site shouldn’t close and that I shouldn’t stop speaking, as so many Moore fans have been saying (and demanding).

In the film, you mention anonymously helping the man who runs the biggest anti-Michael Moore Web site to pay some medical bills. Now that your assistance is no longer anonymous, have you had any further contact with him?
Yes, I called him before the first time we screened it at the film festival in Cannes and told him it was me. I didn’t want him to be surprised by it.

And what did he say?
He was very grateful and thanked me and wished the film well.

And then said, “I’m still going to talk smack about you on my Web site tomorrow”?
Ha. Well, he might. That’s my point. His freedom of speech shouldn’t be taken away just because he can’t afford health insurance.

Can we move past this point yet?

8. Before you send an email that includes any variation on “Why does this site exist?” or ‘Why do you talk about Moore when ____is more evil?” I want you to read the answer here.