Leftist; not un-American

The other day I was watching "The O'Reilly Factor," and Bill O'Reilly asked the rhetorical question, "Where's the right(-wing's) Michael Moore when you need him?" I found this question extremely ironic because I was watching Bill O'Reilly on Fox News.

I like Michael Moore. He's a smart ass, I find him funny and I agree with a lot of what he has to say. Moore can also be a blowhard - if someone challenges him he puffs himself up and shouts them down. I do enjoy Moore's movies, though I agree that he can stretch some facts sometimes. But it's completely backward to ask where Michael Moore's right-wing counterpart is. Moore is at last the left's equivalent of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and O'Reilly himself.

Moore's most recent movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11", portrays President Bush as an incompetent leader who sometimes has conflict of interests between what is best for the American people and what is best for him, his friends and his family's business partners. Many people have problems with Moore: A Web site by author Dave Kopel debunks all of Moore's lies in "Fahrenheit 9/11" (www.davekopel.org). Other Web sites (www.dailykos.com) contain material that debunks the Moore debunkers, and it can get confusing.

My point is everything you will read or see is biased. Moore's movie isn't a documentary - it's a visual opinion piece. People are throwing the word "propaganda" around, but that's a loaded word. Recently Bush's team had to pull a commercial for their new controversial Medicare law. The commercial had actors playing newscasters, lauding the new plan. Now that's propaganda done right. I'm not saying two wrongs make a right, but everything can be propaganda, and both sides use it.

Moore gets called un-American a lot, and if you've actually seen "Fahrenheit" you can see how ridiculous it is. Moore's movie raises questions about some of the presidents contacts, some of his business partners and some of his past jobs that, quite frankly, needed to be asked. Maybe Moore went overboard a little bit, but he still raises valid concerns.

Moore's main point is that America can do better and what our country does affects millions of people worldwide, and he thinks Bush is not the man to lead us. Questioning leadership is not un-American, and to paraphrase Al Franken, people love their country like parents love their children. Some parents can see when their children loses his way and must be critical of them, and other parents think their children can never do wrong.

I don't think people who question Bush, as Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter are un-patriotic or traitors. It's their right to question Bush as much as it's Hannity's and Coulter's right to agree with him.

I guess why I like Moore is that I feel like I finally have someone with the megaphone on my side, though I do think he is criticized more than his right-wing counterparts are. Sean Hannity calls Bill Clinton a rapist on "Hannity & Colmes" and Rush Limbaugh says the Abu Ghraib torturers were just letting off steam, and no one is calling them un-American. Michael Moore says Bush could be crooked, and he might not have our best interests at heart and suddenly he's a communist. I'm not saying Moore is right anymore than I'm saying Limbaugh and Hannity are right, but take everything you see and read it with a grain of salt. To quote another Fox show, "Question everything."

Benjamin Cox is a junior in music history. He can be reached for comment at cox.405@osu.edu.