The Associated Press on Thursday released a fact check of Micahel Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story, the director’s socialistic new movie. And while writer Rachel Beck asserted "some of [Moore's] arguments...fall apart on closer inspection," ABC managed no such scrutiny when it offered 13 minutes to the filmmaker on Tuesday and Wednesday.
For instance, while talking to Nightline host Terry Moran on Tuesday, Moore attacked, "I believe this [Wall Street] is a crime scene. I believe that millions of Americans have had their pensions robbed from them, their jobs stolen from them." The ABC co anchor offered no real response and excitedly enthused that Moore is an "American populist in the grand tradition, a provocateur, a comic, a rhetorical bomb thrower." However, the AP’s Beck critiqued this hyperbolic assertion about robbery:
Story Continues Below Ad ↓MOORE'S TAKE: Wall Street robbed taxpayers.
It's pure theater when Moore arrives in an armored bank truck at the headquarters of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Holding a white bag with a big dollar sign on it, he tells a security guard he is there to collect the $10 billion in taxpayers' funds that went to the investment bank. He doesn't get past the front door.
THE FACTS: Three months after that scene was shot, Goldman Sachs was one of 10 large banks that repaid in June some $68 billion they received from the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program. Since then other large financial companies have repaid funds, too, including Chrysler Financial and American Express Co.
Moran managed to challenge Moore on only one issue discussed in the fact check. (Both he and Beck hit the obvious critique that it’s odd for Moore to decry big capitalism even as he engages in it.)
Beck closed by explaining:
Instead of laying all the blame on banks, Moore could have made the message of "Capitalism: A Love Story" even more powerful with a more nuanced approach. He does note how some individuals unwisely used their home equity like personal piggybanks, but there isn't much discussion about how some of the people facing foreclosure got to that point. That would have bolstered his arguments and shown how damaging it is when greed is everywhere.
For the entire fact check, see the AP.
—Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center.




















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Did ANY of these folks,
September 24, 2009 - 10:26 ET by G. MayDid ANY of these folks, including Moore, mention anything about mortgage backed securities, subprime lending rates, Fannie and Freddie, or the government policies that led to extremely poor lending habits? You know, the main culprits of the financial meltdown?
I'm guessing no.
not to mention
September 24, 2009 - 10:34 ET by charlietexasnot to mention fanny and freddie were run by the democrats and the clinton cronies......forget about that.
Re F&F
September 24, 2009 - 10:47 ET by slickwillie2001I have read in other places that Moore is very tough on Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and some liberals are none too happy about that. Haven't seen the movie myself. Anyone?
I only trust Michael Moore
September 24, 2009 - 10:29 ET by Guapo DiabloI only trust Michael Moore to tell me where the all-you-can-eat buffets are. Anything else he says: Red Flag.
"Moore could have made the
September 24, 2009 - 10:44 ET by Chris Norman"Moore could have made the message of "Capitalism: A Love Story" even more powerful with a more nuanced approach."
Michael Moore doesn't do nuance. What he does is warp, twist, and exaggerate a situation in order to mock it.
The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.
So true. I've never seen
September 24, 2009 - 14:56 ET by HockeyKidSo true. I've never seen the term "nuanced" applied to a big, steaming turd.
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
I would be impressed if the
September 24, 2009 - 12:08 ET by DarasenI would be impressed if the film ever was honest enough to state how much mark-to-market accounting attributed to the banks issues.
...
September 24, 2009 - 13:33 ET by GhostbusterSilly rabbit. You actually think that we have a capitalist system right now? If we did, we wouldn't be in our current mess.
-Ghostbuster
Nope, Still Pathetic
September 24, 2009 - 14:04 ET by Saint ZeroThat's hardly a debunking of the film.
Thank-you.
September 24, 2009 - 15:55 ET by Barry BondsThank-you.
Capitalism
September 25, 2009 - 08:32 ET by harryrhShouldn't the movie be free to see if capitalism is so horrible? Or is he planning on donating all the evil profits to the federal government?