Fahrenheit 9/11
2004-05-10 | 4:56 p.m.

From the WSJ:

'Fahrenheit 9/11'

Isn't to Be Confused

With Truth Telling

May 11, 2004

Walt Disney Co.'s decision to stop its Miramax Films division from distributing agitprop filmmaker Michael Moore's new movie can be called many things. But "censorship" isn't one of them.

Is Walt Disney worried about rupturing carefully cultivated relationships with Republican leaders in Washington and Tallahassee? You bet. Is the company that distributes Sean Hannity's conservative radio show being disingenuous when it says it doesn't want to put out a political polemic in an election year? No question about it.

But Disney officials say they made it clear to Miramax when the company first invested in the project a year ago that it didn't want Miramax distributing the film. And there's nothing in the First Amendment that compels a company to promote a politically charged movie against its will.

The only harm caused by Disney's decision is to its own bottom line. Mr. Moore's films make oodles of money, and lots of companies will be happy to pick up where the Mouse House leaves off. Moreover, the publicity surrounding all this ensures more people will see "Fahrenheit 9/11," not fewer. That is too bad, because this is a movie that will inflame the nation's political debate, not inform it. It is based on a false premise, and it would be better if it sinks into obscurity.

To be fair, I haven't seen the film. And my employers are balking at my proposal to spend the next week in Cannes, where it is being screened at that French resort's annual film festival.

But I have read a synopsis, provided by Miramax. It says the film explores President Bush's "close personal friendships and business ties with the bin Laden and Saudi royal families" and culminates "in the decision to allow bin Laden family members to fly out of the country days [after Sept. 11, 2001] without FBI questioning." Mr. Moore makes the same charge in his book, "Dude, Where's My Country?" "While thousands were stranded and could not fly," he writes, "if you could prove you were a close relative of the biggest mass murderer in U.S. history, you got a free trip to gay Paree!" This would be a shocking charge...if it were true. But it isn't.

The Saudi flights -- including "Air Laden" -- have been investigated exhaustively by the 9/11 Commission, which carries no water for the president. Staffers found that there were indeed six chartered flights, carrying 142 people, most of whom were Saudi nationals, which left the U.S. between Sept. 14, 2001, and Sept. 24, 2001. But contrary to Mr. Moore's claims, not one left until after commercial airspace reopened and normal flights resumed. Moreover, the Federal Bureau of Investigation screened all passengers to ensure that no one of interest to various terror investigations was aboard.

The infamous "bin Laden" flight left on Sept. 20 with 26 passengers, most of them members of the sprawling bin Laden family. Contrary to Mr. Moore's claim, however, the FBI interviewed 22 of those passengers, and checked all of them against various databases. There was no indication that any of them had been in recent contact with Osama bin Laden, or had been involved in questionable activity. The 9/11 Commission staff ran all 142 names against an updated terror watch list again this spring, and again came up with no matches.

The commission also found no evidence that the flights resulted from high-level Saudi contacts with the White House. They seem to have originated with lower-level contacts with the FBI, which apparently was delighted to have these Saudi nationals located, gathered in one place, made available for questioning and allowed to leave the country. Even Richard Clarke, the counterterrorism official turned White House nemesis, agreed the flights were of no particular concern.

Most of this is public record, readily accessible to Mr. Moore. When I pointed this out to him yesterday, he said: "I'm going to stick with the FBI agent who speaks on camera in my movie. The normal procedures were not followed."

Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey urged his colleagues last week to investigate Disney's actions. He fears too much media concentrated in too few corporate hands could become tantamount to censorship. "It's worrisome as hell to me," he said.

But the "Fahrenheit 9/11" saga proves the opposite. The film will be distributed, no matter how much media magnates like Mr. Eisner kowtow to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas. As the photos of abused Iraqi prisoners now flying around the Internet prove, no one has control of today's media. As long as there are people who want to see films like Mr. Moore's, they will get out.

That is the good news. The bad news is that in today's freewheeling media environment, consumers seem increasingly unable to distinguish truth from fiction, news from polemic, reality from fantasy. The danger isn't that people won't see Mr. Moore's film. The danger is they will see it...and believe it.

Write to Alan Murray at [email protected]

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