Michael Moore’s Campaign To Save Our CEOs

This past weekend, a few lucky moviegoers were treated to a preview of what to expect when Michael Moore’s new movie is released in October. The short trailer consisted only of Moore making a personal plea on the behalf of the troubled corporations and executives who have suffered so much in this economic downturn:

“The downturn in the economy has hurt many people, people who have had no choice but to go on government assistance. Yet our welfare agencies can only do so much. That’s why I’m asking you to reach into your pockets right now and lend a hand. Ushers will be coming down the aisles to collect your donations for Citibank, Bank of America, AIG, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and a host of other needy banks and corporations. Won’t you please give generously?”

Those familiar with Moore’s work would be safe to assume that this project will contain a fair measure of disdain directed at greedy industrialists and ineffectual politicians. He is likely to highlight the hypocrisy of partisan rhetoric that condemns government intrusion into contracts that protect executive bonuses, but advocates for such intrusion to break contracts that benefit unions and workers.

However, the tone of this documentary, based on the trailer, appears to be deeply critical of corporate bailouts and government spending. Sound familiar? That is the principle theme upon which the Tea Parties held earlier this year were based. It is the issue that supposedly motivated thousands of “non-partisan” protesters to “spontaneously” gather in parking lots across America with tea bags dangling from their hats. Will those same people be filling seats in theaters to see a movie that addresses the same concerns?

What I’m really wondering, however, is whether Fox News will turn the debut of this movie into a major news event, as they did with the FNC Tea Party Day. Will they promote it for weeks prior to the opening? Will Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity be dispatched to metropolitan cineplexes to cover the premiere – LIVE – and for the full hour of their programs? Isn’t this precisely the issue that they claimed had captured the hearts and minds of a nation that was screaming out for reform? And wasn’t that the pretense for their wall-to-wall coverage of the Tea Partiers?

I’ll go on record right now – more than three months before the release – to predict that more people will attend the opening night of this movie than attended the Tea Parties nationwide. That’s just the opening night. Wouldn’t that make this event at least as representative of the public mood as the Tea Parties were said to be? Wouldn’t that suggest that it deserves at least as much attention from Fox News and the rest of the media? And remember, the Tea Parties were free. People will have to pay to see Moore’s film. Isn’t that an even greater expression of support?

Somehow, I’m not expecting Beck to be preening on a specially erected festival stage outside an Alamo movie house on October 2, with Ted Nugent on lead guitar. More likely he and his Fox cohorts will bash the film and its director in an attempt to preempt the message and its impact. And, of course, they will then continue to insist, through it all, that they don’t regard this as a partisan issue.

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