Mar 27th, 2003, 02:30 AM
I'm replying to the first link provided by Blanco.
I'm going to respond to their numbered claims against Moore:
1)Lockheed-Martin and Nuclear Missiles
They essentially claim that Moore lied, because it turned out that the missiles made their were actually no longer used in offensive situations, rather, to instead carry satewllites.
In defense of Moore, the PR guy he spoke to at the plant never even explains this, nor does he even use this in defense of himself. If the guy who runs the place doesn't even know, why would/should Moore?
As for the "integrity" of the documentary, this doesn't say that Moore lied, it says that Moore simply didn't know, and if anything is guilty of being lazy. Does this make him a liar? I don't think so.
Secondly, do you think the folks who live in that area, PARTICULARLY the teenagers who shot up Columbine H.S., knew the details of the plant? I live relatively close to Indian Point power plant in NY. I have NO idea what regions of the state that powers, or even what particular uses they put the power towards. All I know is that it's POWERFUL. Whether or not the missiles had warhead nukes for war is another question. LM DOES make missiles for the purposes of war, maybe not in Littleton, but certainly elsewhere. People DO know that.
2)NRA and the Reaction To Tragedy
"Fact: The Denver event was not a demonstration relating to Columbine, but an annual meeting, whose place and date had been fixed years in advance."
lame excuse.
"Fact: At Denver, the NRA canceled all events (normally several days of committee meetings, sporting events, dinners, and rallies) save the annual members' meeting; that could not be cancelled because corporate law required that it be held. [No way to change location, since you have to give advance notice of that to the members, and there were upwards of 4,000,000 members.]"
And I'm sure "corporate law" would've brought the NRA to court, not even two weeks after the Columbine shootings, in order to inforce said "corporate law."
"Fact: Heston's "cold dead hands" speech, which leads off Moore's depiction of the Denver meeting, was not given at Denver after Columbine. It was given a year later in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was a response to his being given the musket, a collector's piece, at that annual meeting. Bowling leads off with this speech, and then splices in footage which was taken in Denver and refers to Denver, to create the impression that the entire clip was taken at the Denver event."
I took a look at this guys research, as well as the original NRA transcript. The accusation levied against Moore is that he created a new speech from pieces of Heston's speech. Now if he distorted the words to make Heston imply something else, then I think there's a case here. But when you read the entire Heston transcript, and get to the part where he addresses the mayor, the SAME message of defiance that Moore depicted is still conveyed. Perhaps Moore wanted the same effect in less time. However, the one addition of the "cold dead hands" part is wrong, if true (anybody otherthan this "guy" find this out?).
That aside, it doesn't really change the fact that the NRA still went into Littleton after Columbine to be reactionary and defiant. I read the original speech, and I found Heston's passing words for the tragedy to be less than satisfactory. So the excuse is pre-arranged plans and "corporate law."
"Fact: Heston's speech was given at a "get out the vote" rally in Flint, which was held when elections rolled around some eight months after the shooting."
Is 8 months not a short period for that? Do you think everybody in that town had moved on after simply 8 months??
I'll admit, I did not know this. The movie certainly gives you the impression that the NRA deliberately looks for places recently troubled with gun violence. I'd be interested to see MORE cases however, to see if beyong Littleton and Flint, if such cases exist.
3) Animated sequence equating NRA with KKK.
Don't see the problem with this one. Despite good pr by NRA founders, here's an interesting question: How many Klan members do you think were members of the NRA? This is probably nearly impossible to answer, due to the Klan's anonimity, however I don't think connecting a certain kind of attitude within what, 5 year period?, is that off. And nothing claimed by Moore in that instance was historically incorrect, as in dates, etc.
I will respond to the rest later, way too late, way too long.....
|