I believe Moore will be "on Kerry" from Day Two, as I said at the end of Part 2, but the thing is that he wasn't in Fahrenheit 9/11 and he won't until Day Two: <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20040705/014908.html>.
One of the most remarkable features of John Kerry's presidential campaign is that 99.99% of left-wing supporters of it are too embarrassed to say anything at all about it, much less anything good or bad about it. In Fahrenheit 9/11, which features "expert" talking heads -- including those who are professional politicians -- oftener than Moore's previous films, it's Jim McDermott (D-Washington) and John Conyers (D-Michigan) among Democratic politicians who are asked to step up to the plate, as they are obviously incomparably more pleasing to the generally liberal/left audience than Kerry and therefore can give a progressive cover to the Democratic Party.
>[lbo-talk] Michael Moore's Dilemma: Israel, Saudi Arabia, and John
>Kerry (Part 1)
>Wilson Barber wilsonbarber at yahoo.com, Thu Jul 8 20:54:50 PDT 2004
>
>This is not just about John Kerry but also of the disproportionate
>influence of the pro-Isaeli/Zionist within U.S. media both liberal
>and conservative. I doubt that Moore would have been able to get
>the movie distributed if he even when in that direction despite his
>own rhetorical position in support of the Palestians.
>
>WB
I know that Moore has a gut instinct that makes him support the Palestinians in their struggle for liberation, so one day he may want to make either a film about Israel and the Palestinians or the relation among Israel, predominantly Arab states (including especially Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt), and the multinational empire of the United States (and the evolving roles of Britain and France in it in the Middle East). The question is, as you say, who is gonna finance and distribute such a film. Would any US media mogul? Harvey Weinstein of Miramax, the chief backer of the production of Fahrenheit 9/11, is a liberal mogul who doesn't appear to be much of a player in American political support for Israel, but even he is said to be a benefactor of the rabidly pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League:
<blockquote>In the brouhaha over the Anti-Defamation League's decision to honor Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at a dinner last week, hardly anyone commented on the surprisingly prominent presence of film mogul Harvey Weinstein on the dais.
While Weinstein, the co-chairman of Miramax Films, is a famously large personality -- a staple at all the glitzy film and theater openings in New York -- he has not been a player on Jewish communal or Israel-related issues.
"I haven't seen him being very active in organized Jewish life," said Donna Bojarsky, a political consultant in Los Angeles and New York who advises other celebrities on their involvement with Jewish philanthropies. "He is both philanthropic and very active politically, but he has stuck to the sidelines with Jewish issues."
A dinner honoring Berlusconi, one of Europe's most right-wing leaders, particularly one honoring him for his support of President Bush's Iraq policy, might seem a particularly strange place for Weinstein, a prominent Democratic donor, to debut as a Jewish communal macher -- especially just weeks after the Italian leader made comments sympathetic toward World War II fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. The Miramax founder has played a leading role in several Democratic campaigns in New York, including Hillary Clinton's race for the Senate and Mark Green's failed bid to become mayor two years ago; on the West Coast, Weinstein has put his muscle behind California liberals like Senator Barbara Boxer and gubernatorial candidate Arianna Huffington.
ADL spokeswoman Myrna Shinbaum attributed Weinstein's involvement to his past commitment to the organization. "He's been generally a supporter of the ADL," Shinbaum said. "He's spoken out on what the ADL has done."
But a web of connections -- particularly Weinstein's business ties to the Italian premier -- suggests a different perspective on why the Miramax founder might have chosen the ADL event to make a prominent appearance. Berlusconi owns Medusa Films, Italy's largest movie production and distribution company, a division of his media conglomerate Mediaset.
In his talk at the ADL dinner, Weinstein joked about shooting the Miramax film "Gangs of New York" at the famous Italian studio Cinecitta. Though he did not mention it, Medusa has purchased a number of Miramax films for distribution in Italy and has helped with the financing of Miramax Italian productions such as "Malena."
According to David Rooney of Variety magazine, who wrote from Italy for 12 years, Medusa is far from the only distributor of Miramax films in Italy. But, he said, "it makes good sense to have a good relationship with a good distributor, and in Italy Medusa is the most powerful. They lead the market by a wide margin in terms of production and distribution. They are also one of the leaders of the exhibition sector."
Weinstein did not return calls seeking comment.
Berlusconi's vast business holdings have generated serious questions about conflicts of interest that may arise when a country's main politician is also its main media provider. Through Medusa, a company headed up by Berlusconi's daughter Marina, the Italian leader controls about 25% of the country's film market.
Critics point to the relationship of Medusa and Berlusconi to Italian movie star Roberto Benigni - also a Miramax star - to illustrate what they say is the troubling way in which the Italian leader's business interests appear to serve his political fortunes. Benigni was formerly a leading voice of leftist dissent to Berlusconi. After Medusa recently bought the distribution rights to Benigni's film "Pinocchio," however, the movie star suddenly disappeared from the political scene and went on record commending Berlusconi as an "extraordinary businessman." (Nathaniel Popper, "Movie Mogul Makes Debut as a Macher," <em>The Forward</em>, <a href="http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.10.03/news15.weinstein.html">October 3, 2003)</blockquote>
Imagine what the ADL would say if Moore were to make a potentially popular film critical of Israel, especially with the same cavalier attitudes to empirical facts and logical arguments that he displays in Fahrenheit 9/11. Moore got it easy this time, because Fahrenheit 9/11 -- primarily an anti-Bush film -- got released after the majority of the nation has turned against Bush. The same people who are lionizing him now won't be doing so if he makes a similar film about Washington and Tel Aviv. Front groups of the Democratic Party like MoveOn won't be calling on folks to organize house parties featuring a Q&A conference call with Moore.
>[lbo-talk] Michael Moore's Dilemma: Israel, Saudi Arabia, and John
>Kerry (Part 2)
>mgilmore at highstream.net mgilmore at highstream.net, Fri Jul 9
>07:45:49 PDT 2004
<snip>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Yoshie Furuhashi" <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu>
>
>> John Kerry's pillorying of the Saudis is certainly good politics. <snip>
>>...the Saudis are lambasted as tyrannical, misogynistic, clandestine
>purveyors of terror.
>
>Hey, if the robes fit, wear 'em...so long as we are clear that we
>are talking about the Saudi royals. I am quite positive the vast
>majority of Americans have no idea about the nature of SA's govt.
>Which is why, when Poppy said he was sending US troops to SA and
>Kuwait, he was doing so to "protect democracy" and the entire nation
>didn't fall down laughing.
I'm afraid that the vast majority of Americans did know about the present state of Saudi Arabia as a tyrannical and misogynistic purveyor of terror, but (sadly) they didn't think it was OK to laugh when they were told that America was protecting democracy simply because it was the president who said so. What they didn't and probably still don't know is the history of the colonial creation of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and the precise relation among Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Israel, and the United States, including sometimes joint projects of sowing the seeds of terror.
>As Doug has stated, Team John-John becomes the prime enemy immediately.
For LBO-talk supporters for Kerry (with the exception of Nathan), yes, but what of others? Left-wingers who are concentrating on the ABB politics right now may feel like they are part of the majority, but they are part of it only on the strength of the nationwide anti-Bush sentiment. After the Kerry victory, the majority of people who are "with" you are likely to go home, though we probably won't be exactly back to the position of leftists the day after 9/11.
>Yuck. Guess I'm pretty bad, but the great majority of Americans
>*are* struggling to pay their bills, nobody's saving a dime, and if
>it wasn't for the additional horror of funding via plastic many many
>more would be in much worse shape.
I'm in the same big boat of negative net worth, but even this boat doesn't sink at the same rate, and I'm unfortunately sitting on the fastest sinking side. :-0
>[lbo-talk] Re: "Stupid Straight Men on the Left"
>JBrown72073 at cs.com JBrown72073 at cs.com, Thu Jul 8 08:13:48 PDT 2004
<snip>
> >A wrong yardstick. It's surprising that they lasted as long as they
>>did, with little assistance to the working class of rich nations.
>
>What about a little assistance (solidarity) *from* the working class
>of rich nations, who, after all, were benefitting. Or are you
>talking
>about this line of thought that the USSR et. al should have thrown
>their weight around a little more as purchasers... ?
That's a typo -- I meant to say "from," rather than "to," obviously. -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>