Let's have a pity party for Michael Moore!

One! Two! Three! Awwwwwww!

I recognize, as I'm sure NewsMax also does, that a contender for any of the Academy (of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) Awards, or "Oscars," always wants all the publicity he can get. But what kind of publicity does Michael Moore think he'll get by going on a paranoid blather?

At issue, apparently, is a full-page ad in USA Today and a similar ad in Variety, strongly suggesting that Michael Moore's so-called documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, was not deserving of the honor of Best Picture of 2004. Moore also charges that Bill O'Reilly issued a threat that if Fahrenheit 9/11 did make Best Picture, it might be the last time that middle America went to the movies for a long time.

This from a man who withdrew his film from contention for the Best Documentary Feature award, so that he could get away with showing his film on pay-TV before the election. (That deal fell through.)

Bill O'Reilly has not been shy about criticizing Michael Moore. Here is one example. Here is O'Reilly's interview with Moore over the summer, during which O'Reilly didn't pull any punches--and if you follow his show for any number of episodes, you know that O'Reilly is an equal-opportunity giver-of-hard-times to guests. (And by the way, Moore did indeed imply that the Iraqis didn't need us to liberate them from Saddam Hussein--and he'd get a lot of arguments about that, if he dared visit Iraq.) Here is Bill O'Reilly's scathing review of Michael Moore's earlier book, Stupid White Men. But you know what? I haven't yet found the transcript that quotes Bill O'Reilly as actually saying that AMPAS would provoke a boycott of the movies if they gave Moore an Oscar for his latest film.

But let's assume, for the moment, that Bill O'Reilly did say that--and I'll leave it up to Bill as to whether he will avow or deny that. (Bill O'Reilly never "concedes.") Has Bill O'Reilly committed libel, then? No. Truth is an absolute defense against a charge of libel or slander, as Michael Moore's lawyers ought to have told him by now. Hollywood is already in major trouble for making hate-America movies--and shack-up/shoot-'em-up movies, too--and if they were to grant Michael Moore any Oscar, they would debase themselves even further than they already have. Because Fahrenheit 9/11 is a pack of lies from main title to end title. It is not a documentary; it is fiction posing as a documentary. John Forsythe, Jackie Cooper, and an all-star (for the time) cast did a better job in Shadow on the Land, back in 1968, than Michael Moore ever did--because Shadow at least told a decent story and didn't pretend to be a true-to-history drama!

Michael Moore seemed on the path to self-redemption when he frankly admitted that Bush got more votes than Kerry did, and no "electoral theft" was involved. Now he's back in his old stupid form. What a pity.